by JONATHAN KUTTAB

Israel's attempts to create total and exclusive hegemony in Jerusalem has recently taken a very ugly turn. The bases for this policy were laid back in 1987 when East Jerusalem was illegally annexed into Israel. The residents of East Jerusalem were at that time given a strange status of "residents" but not citizens of Israel. This was not understood at the time for its seriousness because the Palestinian community together with the entire world rejected the annexation and were not eager to demand rights for the Palestinians under Israeli law.

The next step in Israel's policy was to physically restrict building in East Jerusalem while confiscating large tracts of land and introducing large numbers of Jews into housing built by the Israeli government for Jews only. These settlers have now become almost a majority of the population in East Jerusalem. The Palestinian Jerusalemites who were squeezed by the lack of available space for building were slowly forced to move to the outskirts of Jerusalem and began to live there.

The recent crisis comes with the application of Israeli "Law of Entry into Israel" to those residents. In the famous case, Mubarak Awad vs. Ministry of Interior, the Israeli High Court had held that Palestinian East Jerusalemites have the status of permanent residents under the Law of Entry into Israel and that they could lose that status if they obtained another citizenship, left the country for seven years, or obtained another permanent residency.

The current campaign is aimed at this law by requiring East Jerusalemites to prove that they in fact have been residing in East Jerusalem continuously and that they have not obtained another residency. Living outside the annexed municipal boundaries of Jerusalem is now being viewed as "abandoning" their residency and status as Jerusalemites. As many as 30,000 to 50,000 East Jerusalemites now stand to lose their Identity Cards and will therefore be permanently barred from entering into Jerusalem without permit.

Ministry of Interior Officials are now requiring proof of payment of municipal taxes (Arnona) and other evidence of residence inside the municipal boundaries. Since Palestinians cannot obtain building permits to build in East Jerusalem, rents have become exorbitant and those who moved to the suburbs are now threatened with being treated as if they abandoned their rights in Jerusalem.

Almost every Palestinian family in East Jerusalem, whether Muslim or Christian, has faced, in one form or another, the threat of this new policy. Individuals who have obtained foreign passports, or who have traveled abroad to study or who have been forced to seek housing outside Jerusalem all now stand to lose their Identity Cards and be permanently barred from access to Jerusalem. One commentator has called this "ethnic cleansing without genocide". Israeli officials are not reluctant to blatantly describe their policies and their aims. Jerusalem, they say, must be the permanent exclusive capital of the Jewish People. While lip service is paid to providing access to Jerusalem to member of other religions, the reality on the ground is that Palestinian Muslims and Christians are systematically barred from entry to Jerusalem unless they are residents or have a special permit. Now that these residencies are being withdrawn in large numbers, there is an urgent danger that Jerusalem will be deprived of its indigenous non-Jewish population.

Needless to say none of these provisions are applicable to Jews whose rights to enter Jerusalem are based on the Law of Return and not on the "law of Entry into Israel". As such, Jews from Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union, the United States or anywhere else in the world can come and obtain immediate rights to residency and citizenship in Israel. Jews who move to the West Bank as settlers do not lose any of their rights, but the Palestinian Arabs who are forced out of the city because of lack of housing, lose, not only social rights and benefits, health and social security, but also their very rights to reside in Jerusalem.

Sabeel is very concerned about this policy which is subtle as it is pernicious. Racism and exclusivity threatens the fiber of coexistence in Jerusalem and Israeli attempts to obtain domination in the Holy City at the expense of its indigenous population can only lead to more hatred, unrest and bloodshed.

(Jonathan Kuttab is a board member of Sabeel, a lawyer and co-founder of the human rights organizations Al-Haq and the Mandela Institute for Political Prisoners.)