Israel passes law to revoke permanent residency status of Palestinians

Jerusalem: The unicameral national legislature of Israel, Knesset, has passed a law on Wednesday allowing the interior minister to revoke the permanent residency status of any Palestinian living in Jerusalem on grounds of a ‘breach of loyalty’ to Israel.

The legislative branch of the Israeli government specifies three situations when the interior minister can revoke permanent residency of Palestinians; ‘If the status was granted under false pretences’ if the resident ‘endangered public safety or security’, and on the basis of ‘any breach of loyalty towards the State of Israel’.

Israel’s Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox political party Shas, will be able to strip the residency documents of any Palestinian whom he deems a threat. The law applies will apply to all permanent residents, whether they are recent immigrants or long-time residents of Jerusalem.

Depriving the rights of Palestinians:

“By unethically stripping the residency of Palestinians from Jerusalem and depriving the rights of those Palestinians to remain in their own city, the Israeli government is acting in defiance of international law and is violating international human rights and humanitarian laws,” a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hanan Ashrawi said.

Since 1967, Israel has revoked the status of at least 14,000 Palestinians. As per a report by Al Jazeera, Deri, who was earlier a convict of bribery, fraud and “breach of trust” said on his official Twitter account that this law would allow him to protect the “security of Israeli citizens”.