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JERUSALEM: Israel cancelled the east Jerusalem residence permits of a record number of Palestinians in 2006, effectively expelling them from the city, the human rights groups B'Tselem said on Sunday.
A total of 1,363 Palestinians had their residence permits withdrawn last year compared with just 222 in 2005, the watchdog said, basing its figures on interior ministry statistics.
The figure exceeded even the 1997 total of 1,067, the previous highest since Israel occupied Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and then unilaterally annexed it.
Palestinians in east Jerusalem have the status of permanent residents of Israel, the same status granted to foreigners who settle in the Jewish state.
"Israel treats Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem as immigrants, who live in their homes at the benificence of the authorities and not by right," B'Tselem said.
"Treating these Palestinians as foreigners who entered Israel is astonishing since it was Israel that entered east Jerusalem in 1967."
The watchdog said that a common pretext cited by Israel for withdrawing residence permits was the holding of a foreign passport enabling the Palestinians to emigrate.
"It seems that the interior system has an information system allowing it to identify those Palestinians who hold foreign passports so that their status as permanent residents of Jerusalem can be withdrawn," B'Tselem spokesman Sarit Michaeli told AFP.
"The injustice in this policy stems from the fact that an Israeli can have several passports and spend his life abroad without anyone questioning his status as an Israeli national."
Permanent residence gives the holder the right to live and work in the city and vote in municipal, but not parliamentary elections.
But unlike citizenship, it is only passed on to the holder's children if the holder meets certain conditions.
Since 1996, Arab residents of east Jerusalem have had to prove that they live, work and pay taxes in the city to maintain their residence permits.
A total of 245,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem alongside more than 200,000 Jewish settlers.
- AFP/so
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