Summary
Palestinian born and raised in Jerusalem whose residency revocation opens Chapter 2, “Insides”, of Palestine Inside Out: she came to the East Jerusalem Ministry of the Interior to renew her husband’s stay permit and was instead ordered to leave the city of her birth within two weeks under the “Center of life” regulation (Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, PDF p.143-147).
Details
- Her husband, also a Palestinian but with Jordanian citizenship, had lived in Jerusalem with Samira and their children for four years while their family-unification application was being considered; she attended merely to renew his renewable stay permit one more time (PDF p.145-146).
- She was told family unification would be granted in fifteen days if she returned with records establishing her residence in Jerusalem — municipal tax records, a rental contract, water and electricity bills, the children’s birth certificates: “You must bring everything,” “and if you lie, you will lose any chance of obtaining family unification” (PDF p.146).
- On her return, at booth number 1, the clerk took her identity card and documents and told her: “You shouldn’t be here. You should go back to where you were. You have two weeks to sell your furniture and leave.” The officer in charge threatened also to reclaim two years of National Insurance Institute money and to take her oldest son’s identity card (PDF p.146-147).
- She had spent several years in Jordan, returning to Jerusalem every year precisely in order to maintain her residency; under the mid-1990s regulation Jerusalem had not always and continuously been her “center of life”, so she had permanently forfeited her right to live there, and could never even visit again (PDF p.147).
- The book notes that after an international outcry and legal challenges the policy was suspended in 2000 and some of those stripped in the 1990s, “like Samira”, had their residency quietly restored, before the policy was quietly reintroduced (PDF p.148); whether her own residency was restored is not stated in the part read so far.
Related pages
Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, Center of life, Judaization, Population registry and family unification, Sam Bahour