Some 4,000 Palestinians Receive West Bank Residency Status
Some 4,000 undocumented Palestinians received residency status in the West Bank. The office of the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) made the announcement on Tuesday.
Among the Palestinians whose presence in the West Bank were legalized are those who got married in the Palestinian Authority and remained there without registering legally and residents who left the West Bank before the signing of the Oslo Accords and had their identity cards revoked.
The granting of residency status came after approval of security services in Israel and were issued on humanitarian grounds, according to COGAT.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz reportedly had promised to take the action during his meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in March.
Up to 45,000 Palestinian families have also been prevented from living together in Israel due to the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, which bans the automatic granting of citizenship to Palestinians who marry Israeli citizens. The law was not renewed in July, but Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked reportedly has ordered the ministry to continue to deny citizenship to those affected.
