ID cards split Palestinian families
Friday, April 25th, 2008Sherine Tadros; 24/4/08
From the moment I set foot in Gaza there was one question everyone kept asking me: “When are they going to open the crossings?” For almost a year now the two points at which people can get out of Gaza – the Erez and Rafah crossings - have been closed to all Palestinians. Even the Hamas forces guarding the crossings were asking me the same question. They are all prisoners in Gaza. But there is a larger problem beyond the closed crossings, one that will last long after deals on opening Rafah and Erez are made - Israel is using a controversial residency law to prevent Palestinian holders of Jerusalem identity cards currently living or even visiting Gaza from going back to their city. Israel unilaterally annexed Arab East Jerusalem in 1967, declaring its unification with predominantly Jewish West Jerusalem into what it called “the eternal capital of Israel”
