Jerusalemite Palestinian Woman, Maysoon Moussa, Says Expelled to the West Bank

Jerusalemite woman says expelled to West Bank

Published today (updated) 30/04/2010 09:38

Bethlehem – Ma'an –

A Palestinian Jerusalemite woman whose residency card was confiscated on Thursday said she was concerned that the practice was a continuation of an Israeli policy to expel Palestinians from areas under Israeli control.

Referring to the 13 April Israeli occupation forces orders no. 1649 and 1650, which expanded the definition of "infiltrator" to include any individual in Israeli-controlled areas residing without legal permission, the woman, Maysoon Ahmed Nabhan Moussa, 40, said she was targeted in an expanded effort to ethnically cleanse Israel of Palestinians.

Moussa lives with her husband in the West Bank, and was called into Jerusalem's Ministry of the Interior on Thursday, where ministry workers demanded she hand in her Jerusalem residency card.

Having moved to the West Bank after her husband, now working for the Palestinain Authority's Intelligence service, was denied permission to travel to Jerusalem, Moussa found herself without residency rights at all. Israeli laws often prohibit Palestinians - from the West Bank, Gaza or abroad - from obtaining residency rights via their spouses.

Moussa's ID was apparently revoked under Israel's "center of life" regulations, where residency cards can be terminated if the individual's center of life is no longer Jerusalem. Individuals often work or have family in the West Bank, or choose to have their children educated in West Bank schools. Because building permits in occupied East Jerusalem are next to impossible to come by, some families are forced out searching for accommodation.

In order to gain residency rights for the West Bank, Moussa must apply for family reunification through the Palestinian Authority, which in turn submits thousands of names to Israel for their approval. The last batch of reunification approvals for 5,000 new West Bank permits was last August.

“These racist Israeli practices target Jerusalemits, and they must be stopped," Moussa's husband told Ma'an.

Tensions are high following the deportation of four Palestinians to the Gaza Strip, under the new military orders.

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