Palestinians vie for more rights via citizenship
JERUSALEM — More Palestinians in East Jerusalem are applying for Israeli citizenship in hopes of swapping their vulnerable status as mere city residents for the rights and ease of travel that come with an Israeli passport.
But after long touting its offer of citizenship to them, Israel is now dragging its feet in granting it, said those who track Palestinian applicants. Lawyers said their Palestinian clients now wait months for an appointment with the Interior Ministry and an average of three years for a decision.
Israeli officials denied they were trying to discourage applications through stalling tactics, saying delays resulted from a rise in the number of requests.
The citizenship debate reflects the unsettled status of Jerusalem’s 330,000 Palestinians — who make up 37 percent of the city’s population — 50 years after Israel captured and annexed the eastern sector.
The vast majority have city residency documents, allowing them to work and move about, but aren’t citizens of any country. For travel abroad, they use temporary documents issued by Israel or Jordan.
Asking for an Israeli passport still carries the stigma of implied acceptance of Israeli control, and only about 15,000 Palestinians have requested one since 2003, according to the Interior Ministry, which did not provide early figures. Of those, fewer than 6,000 were reportedly approved.
Some polls have indicated the actual number of Palestinians interested in Israeli citizenship is actually larger, mainly because of the practical benefits they can derive.
An Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is meant to end the uncertainty one day. Palestinian leaders hope East Jerusalem will become the capital of a Palestinian state that will also encompass the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in 1967.
But prospects for statehood remain distant, while Israeli rule in East Jerusalem is becoming more entrenched. More than 200,000 Jewish Israelis now live in East Jerusalem settlements built to solidify Israeli control. Israel considers the areas to be neighborhoods of its capital.
Many Arab East Jerusalem residents also feel neglected by the Palestinian autonomy government, which runs parts of the West Bank but is barred by Israel from operating in Jerusalem.
Palestinians who have sought a passport said they had to be pragmatic.
“I didn’t want to lose my right” to live in Jerusalem, Ruba Mueller, a descendant of the city’s prominent Nashashibi clan, said of her decision to become an Israeli.
Married to a German, the 37-year-old Jerusalem native feared that without the shield of citizenship, her extended stays in Germany would enable the Israeli authorities to strip her of her Jerusalem residency.
“I was born here, I am a Palestinian,” Mueller said. “I don’t want a visa that says I’m a tourist.”
Another Arab resident said getting citizenship ended his numerous bureaucratic hassles. The 34-year-old land surveyor, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid being labeled unpatriotic by fellow Palestinians, said he simply wants to “live normally.”