Interior Ministry Forces
Palestinian Women to Renounce Israeli Citizenship
In 1987, `Itedal Abu-Hilal,
from `Ara village located inside the green line, married a resident or
Tulkarem in the West Bank. When the couple’s first son was born, the mother
was told that she could register the child only if she signed that she
would renounce her Israeli citizenship, which she did. Also, Naifa Al-Wakarda
from Lud, married to a West Bank resident, was pressured to sign a similar
statement every time she arrived to the Interior Ministry in order to register
one of her children. Zuhera Abu-Shab was compelled to renounce her citizenship
when she applied for a driving license.
The fate of these three
women is shared by dozens of Palestinian women, citizens of Israel, whose
husbands are residents of the 1967 occupied territories.
Atty Avigdor Feldman, representing
the three in a High Court petition, argues that the Interior Ministry violated
the intent of the Israeli Citizenship Law, because the women did not renounce
their citizenship by their own free will. He also states that in the case
of Jewish citizens, the Interior Ministry usually tries to prevent renunciations
of citizenship. “This [act by the Interior Ministry] represents an exploitation
of the women’s needs ... for the illegitimate aim of stripping the clients
of their Israeli citizenship, leaving them stateless and without any citizenship.”
No date has yet been scheduled
for the hearing of the petition. (Kol Ha’ir, 11/11/94).
It is important to state
that the Jerusalem Interior Ministry has been withdrawing the Jerusalem
ID cards of dozens of Palestinian women, residents of East Jerusalem, who
moved to the West Bank outside the city boundaries following their marriage
to West Bank residents. Their case is even more precarious, because their
status as “permanent residents” is less protected by Israeli law, than
the status of Palestinian citizens of Israel. |