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<h1><font size=4><b>Israel Admits To Cancelling Residency Rights For
140,000
Palestinians</b></font></h1>
<img src="http://www.imemc.org/graphics/date.gif" width=12 height=10 alt="author">
</b></h1><font size=3> Wednesday May 11, 2011
11:45<img src="http://www.imemc.org/graphics/person.gif" width=14 height=12 alt="author">
by Kevin Murphy - IMEMC and Agencies <br>
<a href="http://www.imemc.org/article/61213" eudora="autourl">
http://www.imemc.org/article/61213<br><br>
</a></font>
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<dd>Haartz has today revealed files showing that Israel cancelled the
residency of up to 140,000 Palestinians between 1967 and 1994. <br><br>
</dl>The paper reports that the files, obtained by the Centre for the
Defence of the Individual upon filing a request under the Freedom of
Information Law, show a clear procedure of removal of residency rights
for Palestinians during the period. Haaretz claims the procedure was
unknown to Palestinians leaving the country, often for work and study
purposes abroad. <br><br>
Between the occupation of the West Bank in 1967 and the Oslo Accord of
1994 those wishing to travel from the West Bank into Jordan via the
Allenby Bridge were required to leave their identity cards at the border
and were issued with an exit visa valid for three years. Unbeknownst to
Palestinians, the Centre has claimed, those who failed to return within
six months of the cards expiration would be declared NLR, or No Longer
Resident, without warning, and prevented from returning to their homes.
<br><br>
According toe Haaretz, Maj Gen Danny Rothschild, who was coordinator of
government activities in the Territories from 1991 to 1995 has said he
was unaware of the procedure. "If even I wasn't told of the
procedure, one may infer that neither were residents of the occupied
territories," he said.<br><br>
A similar process is today in place for Palestinian residents of East
Jerusalem who lose their residency rights after seven years abroad. The
Centre for the Defence of the Individual has vowed to uncover what it
believes to be a similar secretive procedure for Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip. <br><br>
Palestinians who emigrated from the West Bank following the establishment
of the PA in 1994 retained residency rights irrespective of time spent
abroad.<br><br>
If the figures are correct the population of the West Bank would have
been some 14% greater than the 1.05 million residents recorded in 1994.
This figure does not include descendants of the individuals who were
forcibly exiled. <br><br>
Top Palestinian Authority official Saeb Erekat has stated that the
practice amounted to war crimes by the Israeli state. “Israel’s actions
violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that
‘everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to
return to his country’" he said in a statement to Heeratz.<br><br>
The news will fuel criticisms that Israel has an active policy of ethnic
cleansing of Palestinians from both Israel and the Occupied Territories,
often carried out through bureaucratic legal procedures. Such procedures
include the extensive and complex system of permits subjected solely on
Palestinian property and movement abroad and across Israeli checkpoints.
The system, The Centre for The Defence of The Individual claims, is
designed to make life unliveable for Palestinians in the West Bank and
Israel and to encourage their immigration abroad; “The policy turns
Palestinians' human rights into a privilege, dependent on the whim of
army commanders and reliant on a complex and non-transparent bureaucratic
system that needs to be approached time and again” the Center
claims.<br><br>
Israel has shown an acute sensitivity to increases in its Palestinian
population in both Israel and the Occupied Territories since its
foundation. The state has consistently denied the right of return for
refugees who fled or were forced from their homes from 1948 onwards.
Palestinian leaders have demanded that a right of return for Palestinian
refugees to their homes in what is now Israel is essential to any lasting
stable peace. Israeli commentators claim any such right of return would
undermine the demographic status of Israel as a Jewish state. <br><br>
<br><br>
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