Israeli Supreme Court Rebuffs Interior Minister, Says Palestinian Councilors Can Live in Jerusalem
PNN – 24.10.11
On Monday, the Israeli Supreme Court gave Israeli Minister of Internal Affairs Eli Yishai 90 days to give “convincing justification” of his cancellation of Palestinian Legislative Council members’ residency rights in Jerusalem. Each of the four councilor’s rights were revoked over the last year for “lack of loyalty to Israel,” but the Supreme Court said Israeli law does not authorize a minister to make that decision.
A statement from the PLC members—Mohammed Abu Tir, Ahmed Attoun, Mohammed Totah, and Khaled Abu Arafeh—said that the Supreme Court decision recognized all Jerusalemites’ rights to live in the city.
The statement also said the councilors considered the Supreme Court decision “a step in the right direction” and assured that their right to live in Jerusalem their city could not be touched. They added that the decision was late in coming but that it was a small correction for a long list of crimes against the council members.
Before the Supreme Court ruling, the accusation of disloyalty as a means of exiling Jerusalemites from the city was seen as an unprecedented step. Quoted in July 2010 in the Guardian, the director of the human rights group Adalah Hassan Jabarin explained, “For the first time Israel is using a claim of disloyalty to revoke residency.The consequences for Palestinians in East Jerusalem are dangerous. This case could open a new window to revoking residency on purely political grounds.”
Of the four council members, Mohammed Totah and Khaled Abu Arafeh are demonstrating in a tent set up outside the Jerusalem headquarters of the International Red Cross. Ahmed Attoun and Mohammed Abu Tir, who represents Hamas, have both been arrested and exiled from the city and are currently living in the West Bank.
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