New Israel regulation allows striping residency of East Jerusalem Palestinians

Regulation that makes it easy to revoke the residency status of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem passed its second and third readings at the Israeli Knesset yesterday, Quds Press reported.

The Knesset passed the law, which gives the Israeli Ministry of the Interior the authority to strip the residency of Palestinians who have ties with Palestinian factions, with 48 in favour, 16 opposed and six abstentions.

Quds Press reported that the proposal, which was initiated by the Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and proposed by the Likud MK Amir Ohana, still needs the approval of the Israeli president, a decoration measure, to become an acting law.

Israeli Basic Law gives power to the Israeli authorities to revoke the permanent residency of the Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem.

The law came as a response to the ruling of the Israeli Supreme Court to turn down an Israeli interior ministry’s decision to revoke the residency of four Palestinians from Jerusalem over having ties with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

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The four Palestinians are the Parliament members Mohammad Abu Teir, Mohammad Totah, Ahmad Attoun and the former Minister Khaled Abu Arafeh.

Israeli authorities revoked their ID cards in 2006 after arresting them. They spent several months in prisons and then were deported to the occupied West Bank.