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Most harmed are the elderly, disabled, and children, chronic poverty also taking its toll on stable family relationships, leading to an increase in violence and crime, an unconducive environment for child development, plus causing serious health and nutritional problems. It reflects a deliberate Israeli effort to dispossess Arabs to create more space for Jews - ethnic cleansing, Israeli-style.
Civil Status Obstructions and Denials
After the 1967 Six Day War, East Jerusalem residents became permanent Israeli residents, affording them the right to live and work in Israel without special permits. Under the National Insurance Law, they're also entitled to health insurance and the right to vote in municipal, not national elections.
In addition, permanent residency, unlike citizenship, passes on conditionally to children. For example, marrying someone without permanent residency or citizenship status requires applying for family unification to live together. In fact, however, Israel treats East Jerusalem Arabs as foreigners whose rights can be summarily revoked, denied, or severely restricted.
As a result, residents endure repeated investigations and inquiries to keep proving their legitimacy - so Israel may deny it, an arbitrary, common practice. In addition, time and expense are involved, including for services applications that can take months or years to be considered.
Many Palestinians live outside Jerusalem's municipal boundaries with no Israeli residency status. Severed from the West Bank by the Separation Wall, they're trapped in East Jerusalem with no recognized status. In October 2007, Israel denied them permanent residency, issuing only temporary permits under military authority. Even getting them involves cost and bureaucratic red tape, and those with them may live in their homes, but not work or drive in Jerusalem. Nor can they get education, health, or other services. As a result, they've been ghettoized under severe, unrelenting duress as foreigners in their own homes on their own land.
Obstructing New Palestinian Construction
For decades in East Jerusalem, it's been virtually impossible for Palestinians to get new construction permits, because Israel authorizes all development for Jews, much of it on increasing amounts of expropriated land. Palestinians even trying to get permits face exhausting bureaucratic procedures and costly fees, beyond what most of them can afford.
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