Preventing displacement with free legal assistance in hard-to-reach areas
Since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and unlawfully annexed East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities have worked to dispossess Palestinian residents of the city, often by implementing policies and creating legal and bureaucratic obstacles that make it difficult for Palestinians to remain.
Unlike those from the rest of the West Bank who hold “West Bank IDs”, most Palestinians from East Jerusalem hold Israeli “permanent residency”. While holding more rights than “West Bank ID” holders, “Jerusalem ID” status grants significantly inferior protections and entitlements than that of Israeli citizenship or nationality, and the Israeli Ministry of the Interior can revoke East Jerusalem Palestinians’ residency if it determines that their “centre of life” is no longer in the city or inside of Israel.
The risk of losing residency is real: the Israeli Ministry of the Interior has revoked the residency status of 14,808 East Jerusalem Palestinians since 1967, according to Hamoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual. Last year, 81 Palestinians lost their status due to the “centre of life” policy, which has been described as “quiet deportation”.
Many East Jerusalem Palestinians live in neighbourhoods that, despite being in areas annexed by Israel and within the official boundaries of the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem, are located behind the Israeli separation wall and isolated from the rest of Jerusalem. It can be difficult for residents of these areas to access the Israeli services to which they are entitled and pay taxes for, including national insurance institutions.
If East Jerusalem Palestinians stop using these services, they are at greater risk of the Israeli Ministry of the Interior finding that Jerusalem is no longer the centre of their life, and the ministry could eventually revoke their residency. It is difficult, however, for Palestinians to navigate the Israeli bureaucracies necessary to maintain their insurance, register their children and file family unification requests.
To mitigate these challenges and help to navigate through the bureaucratic hurdles, the Norwegian Refugee Council launched the Mobile Legal Aid Clinic (MLAC) in 2019 with the support of the British Consulate General in Jerusalem. MLAC was established to provide legal counselling services to Palestinian communities in hard-to-reach places including behind the separation wall. MLAC was piloted in six Palestinian communities in Jerusalem: Anata, Ras Khamis, Ras Shehadeh, Shu'fat Refugee Camp, Kafr Aqab and Isawiya.
The legal consultation service, which is free of charge, aims to ensure that necessary documents are completed accurately and submitted to the appropriate Israeli authorities on time. This works to prevent Israeli forcible dispossession and displacement and other legal problems that Palestinians may face.
The clinic is currently staffed by lawyers and provides more than 15 types of services that include family unification, permit applications, child registration, translation of documents, affidavits, child allowance, identity renewal requests and other services related to Israeli national insurance institutions. Since its founding, MLAC has provided legal services to 2,678 Palestinians.
“Many people don’t have permits or IDs necessary to reach the rest of Jerusalem. Other people have financial difficulties covering legal consultation fees, which MLAC provides for free,” says Zahra Hdieb, coordinator of NRC’s Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) programme.
N.A.* lives with her family in Kafr Aqab, a neighbourhood of East Jerusalem cut off from the rest of the city by the Israeli separation wall. She moved there in 2020 after living in Jordan for 14 years. She first approached MLAC around two years ago for help in registering her five children in order for them to receive permanent residency.
“My father heard about the legal clinic when he was at the local council, and I decided to give it a try,” N.A. says. “The lawyer, Ashraf Qara’in, was very helpful. He assisted me in filling out many applications and gave me useful consultations. I was happy with the result of the first case, so I decided to use the service again for my husband’s reunification request.”
N.A.’s husband, a Palestinian holding Jordanian ID and passport, could not live with her in Jerusalem and had to apply for family unification in order to remain with her and the children. Only three months ago, with assistance from MLAC, N.A.’s husband received temporary residency for nine months, which she hopes will lead to permanent residency in the future.
K.T. was also satisfied with the assistance she received at MLAC. “I tried to deal with some private lawyers in the past, but they were too expensive and didn’t help me that much,” she says.
Qara’in confirms that MLAC’s consultations has proved its quality and efficiency, despite some beneficiaries’ initial concern of using a free legal aid services given by NGOS. “Our service met people’s expectations, exactly as private lawyers, if not better,” Qara’in says.
K.T., like N.A., also lives in Kafr Aqab and has been trying to register her two children. She, too, received legal counselling from Qara’in.
“It’s a free service and located in a very convenient location. I don’t have to cross Qalandiya checkpoint and head to Jerusalem. [Traveling there] is hard, and I have children,” K.T. says.
Although the child registration request is still pending in the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, she has already returned to Qara’in seeking help in issues related to income tax and residential property tax (Arnona).
Qara’in, who works at MLAC’s Kafr Aqab branch three days a week, is heartened by the frequent follow-up calls and visits from some of the people who he works with. “I feel people are more motivated now to track their legal status,” Qara’in says.
“There is an unannounced policy to displace Palestinians from Jerusalem, of course,” says Qara’in, who believes the Israeli policy is clearly reflected in the laws ruling Palestinians. He believes the frequent visits could lead to paying attention to legal errors and fixing them, preventing further displacement from the city.
*Initials have been used to protect the identities of the recipients of legal counselling.