Ramallah: Palestinian residents of Jerusalem are increasingly applying for Israeli citizenship in a move that is shocking observers.
Khalil Tafakji, who heads the Maps Department at the Orient House said that he was shocked by the increasing numbers of Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem applying for Israeli citizenship.
“Its scary and shocking,” Tafakji told Gulf News, pointing out that only 7,000 Jerusalemites obtained Israeli citizenship in 1991.
The Israeli regime is offering Jerusalemites many incentives to apply for citizenship, Tafakji explained.
Currently, Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem hold an Israeli-issued blue identity card which certifies permanent residency in occupied Jerusalem.
To keep their identity card, Palestinians have to exert massive efforts and pay large amounts of money in fees.
Jerusalemites also hold a Jordanian temporary travel document, in lieu of an official passport. The travel document is valid only for five years and presents travellers with an array of problems because it does not have a national number which complicates their ability to travel.
Once a Jerusalemite is granted Israeli citizenship, he qualifies for an Israeli passport which makes movement much easier and his identity card will also be much easier to maintain.
“They can then live anywhere in historic Palestine without fear of their identity card being revoked,” Tafakji said.
New holders of the Israeli citizenship are also buying housing units in colonies in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank, in a move that could agitate Israeli colonists.
Although the trend has made the lives of Jerusalemites much easier, Tafakji worries that the Israeli government will use it as a pretext to say that Palestinians no longer exist.
“Palestinians will have nothing left to negotiate in Jerusalem,” he worried.
