Jerusalemites .. residents not citizens of multiple identities

Aseel Soldier - Occupied Jerusalem

Passports and identity cards held by Palestinians inside Palestine vary according to their area of ​​residence and political affiliation. Their official documents state which areas are allowed to move and where they can leave the country.

The vast majority of Jerusalemites carry the temporary Jordanian passport, in addition to the Israeli blue identity that Israel considers residents, not citizens. In order to be able to travel through Ben-Gurion Airport, they are required to issue an Israeli travel document.

The first of the pages of this document is written in Hebrew and English. "The holder of this document is not treated as a citizen of the State of Israel." This expression is manifested in discrimination against Jerusalemites at the airport by meticulous inspection and queuing in different lines from the Israeli citizenship campaign.

As soon as Jerusalemites board the plane, this document expires and they are forced to show their Jordanian passport at the station where they arrive. They decided not to travel. They have to live inside the occupied city, and the occupation prohibits them from choosing their place of residence.

According to Israeli internal data, from 1967 until the end of July 2017, 14,661 Jerusalemites lost their right to live in the occupied city.

Abdul Aziz Residency
Among those expelled Jerusalemites were Ahmed Atoun, Mohammed Abu Tir, Mohammed Totah and former Jerusalem Minister Khaled Abu Arafa. After their withdrawal, they refused to obtain a PA identity card so that Israel would not use it as a pretext for permanently depriving them of their Jerusalem residency.

It holds 22,000 of the 329,000 Israeli citizenship, both those acquired before the occupation of the city in 1967 and those who applied for it. According to data from the Ministry of Interior, from 2013 until the end of August 2017, 4121 residents of Jerusalem submitted applications for citizenship.

With the departure of the city of Jerusalem towards any Israeli military barrier separating it from the West Bank, the identity and passport are different. About three million Palestinians in the West Bank carry green identity cards issued by the Palestinian Authority, as well as a Palestinian or temporary Palestinian passport or both.

They are prohibited from entering the city of Jerusalem and the occupied territories in 1948, except with a permit that the occupation places many restrictions on its release, leaving the places available to move these Palestinian governorates in the West Bank only.

Restriction of movement
If they decide to travel through the Al-Karama crossing to Jordan via another country, they must pass through three stations, the Palestinian Authority, where they show their personal identity. On the Israeli side, they highlight the permit, and upon reaching the Jordan Bridge they have to show their Palestinian or Jordanian passport with the green bridge card Temporary passport holders.

Despite these complications, the travel procedures of the West Bank residents are easier than the travel of the residents of the Gaza Strip who were carrying an Egyptian document before the arrival of the Palestinian Authority. After they came, they took the Palestinian passport and the green ID card as residents of the West Bank.

About 2 million Gazans live in a large prison. The Rafah crossing is considered the only outlet to the outside world, and traveling through it must justify the reason for travel to the Egyptian side. They are not allowed to leave the Strip solely for tourism.

A student is required to present his university card or identification papers from his university, and if he wishes to travel to a country he must present the visa on his passport so that he can pass through the crossing, and so on.

Blocking lists
Gazans are not only suffering from these complications, but the Egyptian intelligence services include thousands of Gaza Strip Palestinians on security blacklisting for various reasons, including belonging to a Hamas-bound person or having a family member living under the border. Gazans may be prevented from traveling because they wrote in one of them a report that he is hostile to Egypt's policy.

On the security lists and others who need to travel urgently, they have two options: either pay bribes to the Egyptian side of $ 5000, or in coordination through relations with the Egyptian intelligence and state security, and thus pass all the lists recorded by Hamas to arrange the departure of passengers.

When traveling, the residents of the Strip highlight the green identity and the Palestinian passport and explain why they traveled to the Egyptian side with identification papers.

If the Gazans are forced to travel to various countries through Jordan via the Al-Karama crossing, they must first apply for a non-objection to the Jordanian Embassy in Ramallah to allow them to enter their territory. They also have to obtain a permit to cross the Beit Hanoun military crossing. In addition to the need for their Palestinian passport to be shown on the Jordan Bridge, but in very rare cases they are allowed to leave the country through the Al Karama crossing.

Whirlpool procedures
The suffering of the Gazans does not stop there. They enter a long cycle of action if one of them is sick and needs to get out of the Strip for treatment in the hospitals of Jerusalem, the West Bank and the occupied home.

Some 1.5 million Palestinians in the occupied territories in 1948 carry Israeli citizenship that was imposed on all those who remained in the homeland after the Nakba. The Jews, as well as the Jews, are prohibited from entering the countries that Israel regards as enemies, namely Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Algeria and Iran.

According to understandings between Jordan and Saudi Arabia, every Palestinian who wishes to perform Hajj or Umrah will receive a temporary Jordanian passport that will travel between Jordan and Saudi Arabia and will be used by him. During the rituals performed by a Jordanian mission from the Ministry of Awqaf.