On 7 March 2018, the Israeli Parliament passed an amendment to the Entry into Israel Law which allows the Israeli Minister of Interior to revoke the permanent residency status from Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, who the Minister deems have 'breached allegiance’ to Israel. Residency revocation has long been used by Israel as a tool to forcibly transfer Palestinians from East Jerusalem, an occupied territory under international law, to reduce and eliminate Palestinian presence therein and to alter demographic facts on the ground. Since 1967, Israel created and consistently expanded the criteria for revoking the residency status of Palestinians from Jerusalem, of whom at least 14,500 had their residency revoked to date.

The bill (Amendment 30 to the Entry into Israel Law) was introduced following the Israeli Supreme Court judgment of 13 September 2017 on petition HCJ 7803/06. The judgment acknowledged the absence of legal grounds permitting the residency revocation of three Palestinian parliamentarians and a Minister based on 'breach of allegiance’. However, the Court upheld the revocation of residencies for six months – permitting the illegality to continue – and giving the Israeli Parliament this period of time to change the law in order to legalize residency revocation based on “breach of allegiance”. On 26 February 2018, the Israeli government introduced the bill, which allows the Minister of Interior to revoke the residencies of Palestinians from Jerusalem based on the vague and illegal criterion of 'breach of allegiance’. In this regard, breach of allegiance was defined to include committing, or participating, or incitement to commit a terrorist act, or belonging to a terrorist organization, as well as committing acts of treason specified in the Israeli Penal Code 1977. Such criteria are vague and could be widely applied to any Palestinian from Jerusalem.

The cementing of the criteria of allegiance into the Israeli law, currently illegally applicable to East Jerusalem – an occupied territory – is contrary to international humanitarian law standards and will expedite the unlawful transfer of thousands of Palestinians from Jerusalem. Article 45 and Article 68(3) of the Hague Regulations and Fourth Geneva Conventions respectively explicitly prohibit the occupying power from demanding allegiance from the occupied population, where the latter holds no duty of allegiance to the occupying power. The recent legislation reiterates Israel’s systematic policy to forcibly transfer Palestinians from Jerusalem, including by means of permanent residency revocations for breach of allegiance, among numerous others.

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