Granting Israeli citizenship that facilitates terror

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
02 December '12..

There was no reason for the shocked reactions in Israel following the disclosure that the suspected perpetrator of the bus bombing in Tel Aviv last week (21 Nov.) was a Palestinian Arab who had been granted Israeli citizenship to facilitate a “family reunion.”

This category of Arab Israelis had been implicated before in terror, espionage, assorted conspiracies to undermine Israeli security and a surfeit of random crime.

Hence, any sense of surprise is misplaced. If anything, this should serve as a reminder. Too many have, for example, forgotten Shadi Tubassi, the suicide bomber who murdered 16 Israelis at a Haifa restaurant a decade ago. He too was allowed here for “family reunion.”

The danger is so potent that even our ultra-liberal High Court of Justice had seen fit – on several occasions, despite its proclivities – not to disallow government attempts (via citizenship legislation provisions) to stem the tide of Palestinian migration into Israel proper. That migration is seen by many as the implementation by the back door of what the Palestinians dub their “right of return.”

One of the most frequent arguments in favor of relinquishing beyond-the-Green-Line territory is the need to safeguard our Jewish majority. That’s why Jerusalem so steadfastly rejects the Palestinians’ insistence on their right to inundate Israel with the progeny of purported Palestinian refugees.

Yet while demographic apprehensions are regarded as cogent on the territorial issue, Israel has incongruously flung the door open to the precise demographic peril that dominates our polemics.

Unbeknownst to most Israelis, the Oslo Accords made possible a steady stream of Arab immigration via family reunion schemes, directly adding well over 140,000 Arabs to Israel’s population in the 1990s. Additionally, untold thousands likely reside here illegally. Israel’s Arab communities are awash with illegals and the police fear to crack down.

Some 100,000 Palestinians work in Israel. It’s time to revoke and/or discontinue their work permits. Anything less puts us all at risk. The general public is unaware that the numbers of Arabs from beyond the Green Line employed in Israel has nearly reached levels that existed prior to the 2000 intifada.

Do Palestinian Residents of Jerusalem Want Israeli Citizenship? Yes.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
23 October '12..

The Palestinian Authority says it is worried because of the rise in the number of Palestinians from Jerusalem who are seeking Israeli citizenship.

Hatem Abdel Kader, who is in charge of the "Jerusalem Portfolio" in the ruling Fatah faction in the West Bank, revealed that more than 10,000 Palestinians from Jerusalem have been granted Israeli citizenship. Abdel Kader attributed the growing phenomenon to the failure of the Palestinian Authority and the Arab and Islamic countries to help the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.

In other words, he is admitting that Israel is doing more for these Palestinians than the Palestinian leadership and the entire Arab and Islamic countries.

According to figures released by the Israeli Ministry of Interior, 3,374 Palestinians obtained Israeli citizenship in the past decade. According to ministry officials, in the past two years, the number of applicants for Israeli citizenship has intensified.

Palestinians living in Jerusalem enjoy the status of permanent residents of Israel. This means that they hold Israeli ID cards but do not have Israeli passports. As permanent residents, they are entitled to all the rights of an Israeli citizen, with the exception of voting in general elections.

Israeli law, however, allows any resident to apply for citizenship.

Yet, in the first two decades since Israel annexed east Jerusalem after 1967, few Palestinians applied for citizenship. At that time, it was considered an act of treason to apply for Israeli citizenship; the PLO openly threatened Palestinians who obtained it.

Ackerman - Israel Is Home of Choice for its Citizens

Matthew Ackerman..
Commentary/Contentions..
06 June '12..

An article by Pini Herman, a principal at Phillips and Herman Demographic Research, published today in the Forward, directly takes on the popular notion that “millions” of Israelis live abroad. If Herman is right, rather than facing an ongoing drain of some of its most successful Jewish citizens, Israel has been largely successful in either retaining them or recapturing those who left to spend significant time abroad.

In other words, even after a decade that has seen 1,000 Israelis killed in the worst terrorist onslaught in the history of modern Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel, two inconclusive wars, an ongoing and seemingly insoluble conflict with the Palestinians, the rise to power of Islamists across its near abroad, the steady march of a foe committed to its destruction toward nuclear weapons, and rising condemnations of its very existence seemingly in every corner of the globe, the Jewish state continues to be the home of choice for its citizens, even those with easy opportunities to move their lives to other friendly and developed countries.

Herman bases his argument on a new study from Pew that found only 230,000 Jewish Israelis are now living outside of the country. He writes, “The new data confirms that Israel, at 4 percent, has retained its Jewish native-born population at a higher rate, usually double the average 8 percent retention of native borns of most other countries in the world.” Many Israelis return to their native country after spending time abroad picking up skills in valuable industries like high-tech that then become assets for the development of more initiatives based in Israel itself. So instead of draining talent, Israeli emigration is often circulatory, enabling an ever higher percentage of talented Israelis to find the work opportunities they seek without leaving home.

CAMERA - Citizen Klein and the East Jerusalem Citizenship Stats

East Jerusalem Arabs outside the Ministry
of Interior. Increased numbers are applying
for, and receiving, Israeli citizenship
(Photo by AP)

TS..
CAMERA/Snapshots..
30 May '12..

Menachem Klein, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University who in the past has accused Israel of practicing apartheid and following a "classical colonial approach" in Jerusalem, of all places, the Jewish people's historic capital, continues to mislead on Jerusalem. In Ha'aretz, he wrote May 25 that following Israel's annexation of eastern Jerusalem after the 1967 war:

it did not automatically grant Israeli citizenship to the Palestinians who live there. Up until the early 2000s, they could apply for citizen's status - though few did - but since Israel amended its citizenship law, it's almost impossible for them to attain it. (Emphasis added)

Further on, he reiterates his assertion that citizenship is practically unattainable for Arabs living in eastern Jerusalem:

But should they desire to obtain Israeli citizenship, their way is almost completely blocked because the government is worried by the demographic implications this would have for the country being a Jewish state and Jerusalem being its capital. (Emphasis added.)

It is unclear what amendment to the citizenship law Klein has in mind, but the B'Tselem board member would have benefited from checking B'Tselem's own site: