Palestinians applying for Israeli citizenship

Jerusalem Post:

The number of east Jerusalem Palestinians seeking Israeli citizenship has risen sharply in recent months, an official said Wednesday, as talk of a possible re-division of the city gains momentum.

The Interior Ministry has received hundreds of applications for citizenship from Arab residents of east Jerusalem over the past few months, instead of the average of several dozen, said ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad.

Hadad was unable to provide specific figures but said there has been "an increase of hundreds."

The trend appears to stem from Palestinian fears that they could lose Israeli social benefits, such as health care or welfare payments, if their neighborhoods are shifted to Palestinian control in the future.

When Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, the city's Arabs were not made Israeli citizens but instead given the status of permanent residents, holding Israeli ID cards and making them eligible for many benefits enjoyed by Israelis. In contrast to West Bank Palestinians, permanent residents also enjoy freedom of movement in Israel.

They are allowed to request citizenship, but most Jerusalem Arabs have always rejected any such move as recognition of Israeli control over the city.

The rise in citizenship applications comes as Israeli and Palestinian officials prepare for a US-sponsored peace conference at the end of this month in Annapolis, Maryland.

The sides have begun discussing core issues that have scuttled the peace process for years, including the future of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians seek as the capital of a future state.

Israeli leaders have indicated a willingness to cede some peripheral Arab neighborhoods to the Palestinians in a peace deal. This has raised the possibility that Arab residents could lose their residency status.

...


I suspect that these people have seen the debacle that fell on Gaza when Israel withdrew and want no part of it. One of the interesting things about the "occupation" argument of the Palestinians is that the Israeli Arabs have largely not been engaged in the attacks on Israel. Perhaps they know a better deal when they see it. As the recent Gaza experience has shown there are worse things than Israeli occupation.

Melanie Phillips has more on the citizenship applications and the exploitation of the Palestinians by Arab governments.

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