Netanyahu mulls revoking benefits for some Palestinians in East Jerusalem

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has raised the possibility of revoking benefits and travel rights of some Palestinians living in East Jerusalem in response to a wave of Palestinian violence, a government official said on Monday. Such a move did not appear to be imminent or feasible but its mere mention ran counter to a decades-old Israeli assertion that Jerusalem is a united city where Arab and Jewish residents enjoy equal rights.

This alarming escalation, an inhuman and illegal measure, must be stopped immediately.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization

Israel regards all the city, including East Jerusalem, which was captured along with the West Bank in 1967, as its indivisible capital, but the move has never been internationally recognized.  Unlike their brethren in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians in East Jerusalem receive Israeli social benefits and can move freely in Israel. At a cabinet meeting two weeks ago, Netanyahu mentioned the possibility of revoking some rights for Palestinians who live within Jerusalem’s municipal borders but outside the barrier Israel built during a Palestinian suicide bombing campaign a decade ago. Any move to change the status of the city’s Palestinians would threaten unleashing new unrest and draw international condemnations.

If this desire by Netanyahu is translated into a decision, then this will be an act of ethnic cleansing because it targets one-third of the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.

Adnan Husseini, Palestinian minister of Jerusalem affairs.

Middle East East Jerusalem