Israel Passes 'Extremely Racist' Law to Strip Palestinians' Quds Residency
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Israeli parliament passed a law that allows the regime’s minister of interior to revoke the residency rights of any Palestinian in Quds (Jerusalem) on grounds of a "breach of loyalty" to Israel.
The bill, ratified on Wednesday, will also apply in cases where residency status was obtained on the basis of false information, and in cases where "an individual committed a criminal act" in the view of the interior ministry.
Under the new measure, 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.
Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), described the law as "an extremely racist piece” of legislation, Al Jazeera reported.
"By unethically stripping the residency of Palestinians from Quds 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," said Ashrawi, according to a statement published on Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency.
The Palestinian rights group Adalah stressed that the law is illegal under international humanitarian law.
"East Quds is considered occupied territory under international humanitarian law (IHL) - like all other areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - and its Palestinian residents are a protected civilian population. It is therefore illegal under IHL to impose upon them an obligation of loyalty to the occupying power, let alone to deny them the permanent residency status on this basis," the group said in a statement.
In the past, Human Rights Watch has stressed that such residency revocations, which force Palestinians out of Quds, "could amount to war crimes" in the eyes of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The law will most likely apply to East Quds residents who have protested against the Israeli occupation and its manner of treatment of Palestinians.
The occupied Palestinian territories have witnessed a new wave of tension ever since US President Donald Trump announced his decision on December 6 last year to recognize Quds as Israel’s capital and relocate the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the occupied city.
The dramatic shift in Washington’s policy vis-à-vis the city triggered demonstrations in the occupied territories, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Morocco and other Muslim countries.
