The forced eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem is in breach of international human rights, but beyond this, is the acute human suffering of people who believed they had temporarily moved out of East Jerusalem.
There are no trucks loaded with refugees, no weeping women and children being dragged away by brutal soldiers, no physical violence and only a little media coverage.
Israeli residency policies have caused the displacement of thousands of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem during the last years and threaten thousands more.
The forced eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem is in breach of international human rights, but beyond this, is the acute human suffering of people who believed they had temporarily moved out of East Jerusalem.
According to new Israeli laws, if Palestinian residents of Jerusalem study or work abroad, their right to reside in Jerusalem I taken away.
The deliberate Israeli policies to create an acute shortage of housing for Palestinians in Jerusalem are another way to reach the same goal.
And the Israeli authorities’ refusal to allow a non-Jerusalemite souse to dwell in the city is yet another step to reduce the number of Palestinians in the holy city.
People belonging to any of these categories are at risk of losing their right to “residency” in Jerusalem.
They are no longer allowed to enter their hometown, let alone work in it, except by special permit.
And they are no longer entitled to social benefits such as National Insurance, child benefits, pensions and health insurance.
It should be noted that these policies affect a Palestinian moving 50 yards north of the municipal boundaries, but not a Jewish Jerusalemite moving to West Bank settlements in the same proximity.
Such a person suffers no loss of freedom of movement, residency rights or social benefits.
These grossly unjust and inhumane policies, which have already affected thousands of Palestinians, and will affect tens of thousands more, are carried out discretely, through invisible, bureaucratic procedures backed by Israeli laws and court decisions. But the actual effect resembles what the most extremist political factions in Israel have advocated: large-scale displacement of Palestinians to permanently alters the demographic character of Jerusalem. These policies must be halted now, and the world community and decision-makers – Israeli and international – must become aware of the damage they cause.
From Via Dolorosa Magazine
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