Haaretz editorial:

Israel Opens its Gates to The World, Shuts Them to Palestinians

Haaretz editorial
Haaretz (Israel)
May 13, 2011

www.haaretz.com/opinion/israel-opens-its-gates-to-the-world-shuts-them-to-palestinians-1.361422

The covert deportation of West Bank residents in order
to increase the number of Jews in the West Bank, like
the declaration of land as "state land" to build
settlements on it, is an example of the occupation's
rotten fruit.

From the occupation beginning in 1967 to the day after
the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1994, Israel used a
covert procedure to banish Palestinians by stripping
them of their residency rights. This was revealed in an
official document drawn up by the Israel Defense
Forces' West Bank headquarters, published by Haaretz on
Wednesday.

A letter sent to the Center for the Defense of the
Individual [ http://tinyurl.com/3q7oajd ] says the
procedure, enforced on Palestinian West Bank residents
who traveled abroad, led to the stripping of 140,000 of
them of their residency rights. Israel registered these
people as NLRs - no longer residents - a special status
that does not allow them to return to their homes. The
document makes no mention of the number of Gaza Strip
residents who traveled abroad for studies or work and
were permanently banished from the region by the same
procedure.

The sweeping denial of residency status from tens of
thousands of Palestinians and deporting them from their
homeland in this way cannot be anything but an
illegitimate demographic policy and a grave violation
of international law. It's a policy whose sole purpose
is to thin out the Palestinian population in the
territories.

It would be reasonable to assume that many family
members of the Palestinians uprooted between 1967 and
1994 joined their relatives in exile and became
homeless refugees themselves. The gates of the West
Bank and Gaza Strip were also locked to the NLR's
children and descendants who were born outside the
territories. After the Oslo Accords, Israel allowed a
relatively small number of NLRs to return to the
territories. Since the second intifada broke out, the
people exiled between 1967 and 1994 have been
prohibited from visiting their homes, even as tourists.

The covert deportation of West Bank residents in order
to increase the number of Jews in the West Bank, like
the declaration of land as "state land" to build
settlements on it, is an example of the occupation's
rotten fruit. Israel opens its gates to people from all
over the world, who have the right of return. It lets
them settle in Hebron and at the entrance to Nablus. It
must immediately rectify the ongoing injustice caused
to tens of thousands of Palestinians who were born in
Hebron and raised children in Nablus.

The government would do well to remove the NLR stigma
from these people, restore their residency status as
quickly as possible and permit them to return home and
unite with their families.

___________________________________________

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