Al-Juaba.. a new victim of the policy of withdrawing residency from the Palestinians of Jerusalem

The Israeli government's judicial advisor approved the withdrawal of the right to reside in Jerusalem from the young man Majed Al-Jubeh (Al-Jazeera)

Occupied Jerusalem -

 Since his solidarity with the deported Jerusalemite representatives who staged a sit-in in the courtyard of the Red Cross headquarters in Jerusalem on June 17, 2011, the young Jerusalemite Majed al-Jubeh has been threatened with deportation from Jerusalem and the withdrawal of his residency rights.

According to his sister Bayan, the Al-Jubeh family did not take this threat seriously at the time, and expected it to be just a passing matter, but they later discovered that the occupation authorities actually intended to expel her brother and punish him by deporting him from Jerusalem permanently.

Today, 13 years after the first threat, the Israeli government’s judicial advisor, Galli Behrab Meara, approved the withdrawal of the right of residency in Jerusalem from the young man Majed al-Jubeh, about two and a half months after the Israeli Ministry of Interior announced that it was considering withdrawing his residency permit on the grounds of his membership in the Islamic Resistance Movement ( agitation).

According to the legal sequence, the request to withdraw the Jerusalemite identity card (the blue ID card) from the inventory will be placed on the desk of the Israeli Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, for approval so that the Ministry of the Interior can complete the procedures for depriving this young Jerusalemite man of the right to reside in the city in which he was born, raised, married, and fathered 6 children. In which.

The occupation authorities decided to withdraw the “blue ID” from the Jerusalemite prisoner, Majed Al-Jubeh, under the pretext of belonging to banned organizations. Al-

Jubeh was arrested in October 2023, tried under administrative detention, and his administrative detention decision was renewed a few days ago for another 4 months pic.twitter.com/31VoiQsGTE

- Al Jazeera Net | Jerusalem (@Aljazeeraquds) February 15, 2024

The goal is to empty Jerusalem

In the family's comment on the occupation authorities' intention to expel their imprisoned son from Jerusalem permanently, his sister Bayan al-Jubeh said, "If your opponent is the judge, to whom should you complain? The occupation's goal is to empty Jerusalem and expel us from it, and we are not surprised by this step."

She added that during one of the raids carried out by soldiers and occupation intelligence officers at the family home, they found a picture of the Kaaba overlooking the wall, and one of them said to Majed at the time: “What do you think we should send you there? This is better for us and for you.”

Bayan continued, "They have been wanting to remove him from Jerusalem for years, and they took advantage of the events of the war to implement their plan. They are fighting us over our most basic rights to live freely and safely with our families."

Majed Al-Jubeh was born in the Old City of Jerusalem on September 6, 1980. He was arrested for the first time after being injured in the Tunnel Uprising that broke out in 1996. Then the persecutions continued and intensified since the year 2000 when the second Intifada broke out.

Al-Aqsa was the first destination of the shrine, and he was appointed as a guard there, but he did not enjoy guarding this mosque for many years, according to his sister, who said that as soon as the settlers were allowed to storm Al-Aqsa in 2003, Majid and his fellow guards worked to follow the settlers’ movements inside it, and they were not spared from persecution.

Documents carried by Jerusalemites: a blue identity card as residents of the city, a temporary Jordanian passport, and an Israeli travel document (Al Jazeera)

Early pursuit

“The occupation began punishing Majed by deportation from Al-Aqsa in 2005, and since that year his deportation has been renewed continuously for 6 months, and he is only able to enter it for a week or less, and in 2019 he was punished by deportation from Jerusalem for nearly two years,” Bayan added.

Al-Jubeh spent a total of 7 and a half years in Israeli prisons, and was always accused of being active in Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City, and organizing Qur’an memorization sessions in mosques, in addition to being accused of being responsible for establishing the “Al-Aqsa Youth Organization,” which was considered banned, and every time he was charged with Charged with belonging to an organization classified by Israel as terrorist, namely Hamas.

Bayan Al-Juaba says that Majed’s six children, the eldest of whom is Ragheb (16 years old) and the youngest of whom is Usayd (4 years old), have not known anything about their father since his arrest and transfer to administrative detention (detention without charge) on October 12, adding that the occupation courts extended his detention. Administratively for another 4 months a week ago, the family did not know about the decision to withdraw his residency rights except from the Israeli media.

Violation of international laws

Since the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has made many changes in the city with the aim of reducing the Palestinian presence there to a minimum, in exchange for maintaining a Jewish majority.

Among its violations was changing the legal status of Palestinians and defining them as residents, not citizens. Accordingly, Al-Maqdisi now holds a blue ID card, in addition to a temporary Jordanian passport, and an Israeli travel document (Lasibasi).

According to Munir Nusseibeh, director of the Community Action Center at Al-Quds University, speaking to Al Jazeera Net, this measure was one of the first Israeli violations of international law, as the occupying state treated native citizens the same way as foreigners immigrating to it.

The biggest problem is that the right to residency for everyone who holds this card is fragile, and Israel can easily revoke the residency of any Jerusalemite. Since the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967 until the present day, the occupation has revoked the residency of more than 14,500 Jerusalemite men and women.

The occupation developed many standards to revoke the right of residency for Jerusalemites. According to Nusseibeh, the blue card (Israeli ID card) was withdrawn from Jerusalemites who travel and reside outside the country for 7 years.

Standards and legislation

Since 1994, the occupation has introduced the “center of life” criterion, according to which it is considered that all Jerusalemites who live outside the city of Jerusalem “do not deserve to enjoy resident status.”

The most dangerous criterion came in 2006, and the right to reside in Jerusalem was revoked under the pretext of “violation of loyalty” to Israel. Jerusalemite lawyer Salah Al-Hamouri, who was deported to France in December 2022, is one of 14 Jerusalemites whose right to reside in Jerusalem was revoked as “punishment” for allegedly “violating loyalty to the State of Israel.”

In 2018, the Israeli Knesset approved a law authorizing the Minister of the Interior to revoke residency from Jerusalemites under this claim, contrary to the stipulation of international humanitarian law that loyalty is not expected from residents under occupation to the occupying state.

Director of the Community Action Center, Mounir Nusseibeh, describes the procedure of revocation of residency based on the “breach of loyalty” criterion as “persecution,” and it constitutes a grave violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which absolutely prohibits the transfer and expulsion of civilians from their country in the occupied territory.

According to Nusseibeh, this measure also constitutes a violation of the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court, which defines expulsion as a war crime and a crime against humanity if it is practiced systematically or on a widespread basis.

Source: Al Jazeera