Status, Voice, and Governance
Precarious Status
Most Palestinian Jerusalemites have a legal status that is unique in the world: Although they are indigenous, they are stateless. This situation creates a precarity that infuses every aspect of life and leaves the community perpetually afraid that their fragile residency status will be summarily revoked. Here we explore this untenable reality.
Featured in This Topic
Palestinian Jerusalemites are indigenous natives who enjoyed full citizenship rights and whose international rights were profoundly violated when Israel denationalized them as it established its state. A conversation with international law expert Susan Akram.
Milestone events in the evolution of Palestinian national and citizenship rights
The evolution of the legal status of Palestinians of Jerusalem, from the 19th century to today, with milestones of increasing precarity along the way
Palestinians who hold permanent-resident status must satisfy the state that Jerusalem is their “center of life” in order to continue enjoying that status. But how frequently?
An in-depth look at the extraordinarily precarious legal status held by Palestinian Jerusalemites, and how it has become more precarious over time
An in-depth look at the extraordinarily precarious legal status held by Palestinian Jerusalemites, and how it has become more precarious over time
The infinite indignities and humiliations of daily life for Palestinian spouses living in Jerusalem on Israeli military stay permits
A fictional couple plays out how Israel’s new regulations for foreigners wishing to visit the West Bank will seep into their private lives.
When she married at 18, Ayah hoped to expand her world. She soon found that her range of motion did not extend beyond the nearest checkpoint.
An Israeli human rights lawyer offers an expert perspective on the new Israeli visa requirements for foreigners wishing to visit or work or study in the West Bank with Palestinians.
Restrictive visa requirements for any foreigner visiting Palestinians who hold PA IDs and live in the West Bank take effect.
A Palestinian Jerusalemite lawyer, long a target of state harassment, faces imminent deportation under the recent “breach of loyalty law.”
When legally participating in your nation’s elections results in deportation from the city of your birth
The everyday experience of moving about in Jerusalem while Palestinian
A photojournalist is left stateless and in limbo as Israel repeatedly rejects his applications for status and tries unsuccessfully to deport him.
What are the everyday interactions that pose risk to a Palestinian permanent resident of Jerusalem?
The Story in Numbers
358,800
Palestinians in Jerusalem (registered with legal status) [1]
20,000
Approximate number of Palestinian Jerusalemites who hold Israeli citizenship [2]
338,800
Estimated number of Palestinian Jerusalemites who have Israeli permanent-resident status, an inferior, conditional, and geographically restricted status that is revocable if residents cannot continuously prove that Jerusalem is their “center of life” at any point the authorities demand such proof [3]
14,701
Number of Palestinian Jerusalemites whose residency status was revoked by Israel from 1967 to 2020 [4]
5.3
Average number of Palestinians living in a single household in Jerusalem in 2018 [5]
77,913
Very rough estimate of the number of persons affected by the residency revocations over time; since the revocation of an individual’s residency also extends to his or her dependents. [5] Others have estimated this number to be significantly higher (86,000 in 2015, at which point the number of revocations was 14,565). [6]
Notes
1. Michal Korach and Maya Chosen, Jerusalem Facts and Trends 2021: The State of the City and Changing Trends (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, 2021), 14. Data from this source reflect the number of Palestinians entered in the Israeli Population Registry (including both citizens and permanent residents). Unregistered persons and persons with Palestinian Authority (PA) IDs living in Jerusalem are not included and may number in the thousands or tens of thousands, but those data are unknown.
2. The story behind this number is too complex for a note. See other backgrounders in this topic.
3. Harrison Jacobs, “I Took the Excruciating 10-mile Journey through Israel’s Most Notorious Military Checkpoint That Adds Hours to the Daily Commute for 26,000 Palestinians,” Business Insider, August 7, 2018.
4. See Precarious Status.
5. Calculation made by multiplying the known number of individual revocations over the years by the average household size for Palestinians in Jerusalem in 2018. Michal Korach and Maya Chosen, eds., Jerusalem Facts and Trends 2020 at a Glimpse (Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, 2020). Clearly this is only a rough estimate given that the average household size would have changed over the years since 1967. The key takeaway here is that the revocation of a single individual’s residency also affects the status of all of his dependent children (see Precarious Status).
6. Tamara Tawfiq Tamimi, “Revocation of Residency of Palestinians in Jerusalem: Prospects for Accountability,” Jerusalem Quarterly 72 (2017): 37–47.