Citizenship and Residency

You have reached ACRI’s archive, updated with our activity up until 2018. For more recent posts, please visit our current website here.

The Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem hold the status of permanent residents of Israel. However, the state treats them as foreigners, whose residency status can be revoked on a regular basis. The residents are forced to defend their residency constantly by proving the location of their ‘center of life’ to the Ministry of Interior and to the social security services; meanwhile the revocation of residency status often takes place in an arbitrary manner and without a fair process.

ACRI continues to challenge this policy of residency revocation, as it only affects the Arab residents, proving its discriminatory nature. In addition, through public advocacy and legal work, ACRI actively protests the Citizenship Law which currently makes it extremely difficult for Palestinians from the West Bank to gain residency or citizenship while making it impossible for citizens from a number of other countries designated by the government as “security threats”. Ultimately ACRI seeks to promote the equality of Arab residents before the law in order to ensure the protection of basic human rights for all Israeli residents.