Date: Wed, 16 Sep 98 10:21:42 UT
Subject: Israel stepping up deportation of Jerusalem's Arabs: rights groups


Israel stepping up deportation of Jerusalem's Arabs: rights groups

Tue 15 Sep 98 - 17:31 GMT 

(AFP) - by Nomi Bar-Yaacov

JERUSALEM, 15 Sept (AFP) Israel is developing new legal weapons to
accelerate the deportation of Arab residents from east Jerusalem despite
government promises to curb the practice, Israeli rights activists said
Tuesday.

The human rights groups Betselem and Hamoked told a press conference that
the interior ministry was enlisting the help of the state social security
agency to track down Palestinians whose residency rights have allegedly
lapsed.

A joint report by the two groups said that cancellations of Jerusalem
residency permits jumped from an average of 30 per year from 1987 to 1995 to
more than 600 annually since the nationalist government of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in May 1996.

The rhythm accelerated further during the first three months of 1998, with
178 Palestinians having their residency permits revoked and another 500
cases put under review, they said.

Loss of residency permits forces Palestinians, many of whose families have
lived in Jerusalem for generations, to move to the West Bank or abroad. They
also lose benefits offered by Israel's social security system and access to
public schools.

Amid growing public criticism of the deportations, Netanyahu promised more
than a year ago to review the policy, including making it "easier for those
who have lost their Jerusalem residency to retrieve their identity cards."

"We want to make life easier for Arabs and Jews alike" in the city, he said
at the time.

But Eliahu Abram, a lawyer with Hamoked, said Netanyahu's government had
done just the opposite and was now even using the social security agency to
force out Arab residents.

"The National Insurance Institute has become an integral part of the quiet
deportation policy which the ministry of interior is effectuating," said
Abram.

The institute, he said, requires Palestinians from east Jerusalem to provide
numerous documents when they apply for health care, entry to schools or
other benefits.

Even when the documents are provided, including leases or proof of home
ownership, copies of utility bills and local tax payments, applicants are
often rejected, a move which forces families to locate elsewhere, Abram
said.

When it comes across persons who lack proper documentation, the insurance
institute passes the information on to the interior ministry which is
charged with revoking residency rights, he said.

Israel justifies the deportations by saying they only affect people who have
forfeited their permanent residency rights by living outside Jerusalem for
seven years or more.

Palestinians respond that Israel issues virtually no building permits to
Arabs in east Jerusalem, forcing some residents and notably young couples to
move abroad or into suburbs in the West Bank.

Many women who reside in east Jerusalem but marry men from the West Bank are
also forced to give up their residency by an Israeli refusal to grant their
husbands or children identity cards.

Human rights organisations have challenged the government's policy on east
Jerusalem residency to Israel's supreme court on grounds it is racially
discriminatory.

In a move Abrams described as potentially groundbreaking, the high court for
the first time demanded an official justification for the deportations.

The government's response is expected to be given to the high court in
coming days, he said.

Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and
annexed it as part of Israel's "eternal capital."

Since 1967, Israel has built 40,000 public housing units and settled some
170,000 Jews in the sector and major new Jewish quarters are planned.

During the same time only 600 housing units were built for Palestinians, who
hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of a future state of their own.

 
©AFP 1998




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