(RAMALLAH) - I am considered under the Israeli law to be an illegal citizen of the Palestinian West Bank and I am supposed to avoid it as an area of danger while Jewish settlers are allowed to come from all over the world and settle legally (under Israeli law) in the Palestinian West Bank.
I am a Palestinian who lives in the occupied eastern part of Jerusalem. I am required to carry around my blue identification card which permits me to cross checkpoints daily from my house in Jerusalem to my school in Ramallah and vice versa. Carrying the blue identification card enables me to travel “freely” across the West Bank and 1948 Palestine while those carrying West Bank and Gaza IDs are not able to leave those areas without special Israeli issued permits. Having said that, however, carrying this blue ID is more of a curse than it is a blessing.
I am not a full citizen of the state of “Israel”, Neither am I a full citizen under the Palestinian authority. I am not even Jordanian, I do not carry any official nationality nor am I allowed to carry any. I carry a semi-Israeli passport and a “temporary” Jordanian issued semi-passport. Living under this circumstance is extremely unbearable.
Arabs living in 1948 Palestine (Israel) do have full Israeli “official” citizenship, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are considered officially Palestinians and do carry official citizenships. Whenever I am asked to fill any kind of a form which asks who I am and where do I live, I fill in nationality as Jordanian and address as Jerusalem, Israel. Unfortunately that is the reality lived by all Palestinian Jerusalem residents who are not citizens of Israel, I’m am not sure how they define us, but it is surely not a citizen of Israel but a temporary citizen waiting to be expelled to some other land soon.
Building permits aren't granted to Palestinians by the Israeli municipality, therefore they destroy their homes. Ethnic Cleansing
We, Jerusalem citizens, are threatened to loose our Jerusalem ID cards if the Israeli authorities find out that we have a house in the Palestinian West Bank. We are not allowed to live in the West Bank nor it is easy for us to buy or rent a property to live in inside Israel. The laws of the apartheid state of Israel makes it extremely hard to obtain a permit to build a house, or renovate an already existing house anywhere. All around Eastern Jerusalem, residents struggle to obtain building permits to fit those new family members while a Jewish person can easily obtain a permit and build a whole residential compound to fit few family members. All of this is a part of the plan to ethnically cleanse Jerusalem and Palestine of all Arabs, Muslims and Christians alike.
That is the reason anyone who carries a Jerusalem ID and lives in the West Bank most often has an address in Jerusalem to cover up his West Bank house from the Israeli fascist authorities.
The Zionist government claims settlements are purposed to fit the natural growth and increase in Jewish population, but the increase of Arab population is not met with any extra housing of any type, Arabs are not even allowed to add an extra room to their houses due to apartheid Israeli laws.
On the other hand, carrying the Jerusalem ID does not allow us to obtain any other worldwide nationality! If Israeli apartheid authorities find out that anyone carrying a Jerusalem ID obtained a foreign passport (For example: Canadian or American) his ID is to be taken away and he is to be deported along with having all his property confiscated. What is extremely annoying here, is the racial bias.
A billboard in Jerusalem advertising a new illegal Jewish settlement
Anyone who is a Jewish citizen of Israel is permitted to carry as many foreign passports and nationalities along with his Israeli passport. You will find an Israeli Jew who carries an American passport, a German passport, a French passport, and a Belgium passport along with his Israeli passport while an Arab citizen carrying a Jerusalem ID is not able to even carry a Palestinian passport or a full Israeli passport, as if we are non-existent humans.
My father has always told me, our struggle holding this Identification card is a struggle of existence. If we ever thought of giving up this ID card to move live somewhere else, we are giving up our eternal right in the land of Palestine and Jerusalem to be specific. The Jewish Zionist plot is and has always been achieving an ethnically pure Jewish only city of Jerusalem. As I have said in another article, Jerusalem was never meant to be for any specific people, race, or religion. Jerusalem is the holy city that accepts people from all around the globe and from all different religions!
I will not accept being treated as an inferior citizen, I demand equality in living!
Jerusalem is my city, I am an existing human being who demands human rights as any other citizen living in any other country in the world!
The apartheid laws of the Israeli state need to be abolished! This system is slowly turning to be EXTREMELY similar to 1935 Nazi Germany, we don’t want it to turn to 1939 Nazi Germany or further. We exist! We have the right to exist and travel freely in our land without worrying every minute of being expelled for choosing a place of living!
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