Posted on 12/03/2009 3:20:01 AM PST by thisisthetime
JERUSALEM -- Israel last year revoked the Jerusalem residency of more than 4,500 Palestinians, far more than in any other year since Israel took full control of the city in 1967, according to government figures obtained under the country's freedom of information act by a local human rights group.
In what an official for the group on Wednesday called a "frightening" escalation in the enforcement of Jerusalem residency laws, the Interior Ministry said that a sweep of its files last spring turned up thousands of names of Palestinian Jerusalemites who had left the country for longer than the allowed seven years, and would not be allowed to return.
In the 42 years that Israel has had full control of the city, it has on average revoked the Jerusalem residency permits of about 200 people a year -- and often fewer than 100. The previous high had been 1,363, in 2006.
The impact of the revocations is not clear. There are about 260,000 Arabs in Jerusalem -- approximately 35 percent of the city's population -- according to the most recent estimate by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, a think tank that studies the city's demographics. That proportion has been steadily increasing amid controversy over Israeli housing and other policies criticized by Palestinians as an effort to diminish their presence.
Palestinian officials and a lawyer for the human rights group, Hamoked, said it was impossible to tell how many of the 4,500 had emigrated from Jerusalem for good, or when they left, and how many might be abroad for work or study and expecting to return.
(Excerpt) Read more at thewoodwardreport.com ...
So the a-rab population in Jerusalem has been increasing and these people see fit to whine about it.
Gee...once more we have a tid-bit of information from the anti-Israel crowd.
how many permits wer egranted?
Did the end number for total Palistinians go UP or DOWN?
How many are simply because THEY MOVED OUT?
How many are because people died?
How many are because they renounced residency?
I am tired of the half-story media.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Whether through bias or ignorance, Howard Schneider has penned a dishonest "news" article. As even BBC, hardly a pro-Israel institutions, acknowledges in their coverage
Palestinians living in East Jerusalem were offered Israeli citizenship after Israel occupied the area in 1967 and later annexed it.Many refused, not wanting to recognise Israeli sovereignty, and were instead given residency.
If I'm not mistaken that citizenship offer still stands. The action is perfectly reasonable on Israel's part, when the Zionists are driven into the sea they won't need their residency permits anyway. What's unreasonable, imo, is leaving the citizenship offer open.
Very unreasonable, especially considering the way every generous Israeli gesture is met with animosity (and worse).
It provides useful information.
If you know any arab in the USA that has to “go back to Palestine” to maintain his “citizenship,” you know that that person so hates Jews and Israel that he won’t accept actual citizenship of Israel.
In effect, it’s a perpetually aggreived person, and probably dangerous.
Abused spouse syndrome might explain it, but we’re really not married to them. Are we?
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