revoked the citizenship of Palestinian citizens, it never done so for Jewish
Israelis. In recent years, Israel and its right-wing coalition governments have
increasingly eased the revocation of citizenship and used new laws such as
the Nationality Law to target Palestinians.51
Palestinian citizens of Israel living in the Gaza Strip
Palestinian citizens of Israel who married Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip
during the 1980s and 1990s, and wanted to reside in the Gaza Strip and be eligible
for municipal services were asked to sign a document in Hebrew, unknowingly
declaring their renunciation of their Israeli citizenship.52 Some women who
requested to move back to Israel with their children, for reasons such as divorce
or becoming widowed etc., found out that they had lost any legal status in Israel,
and that their citizenships were revoked. Thus, their presence in Israel is considered
‘illegal’, and they are not eligible to any social security services (health care,
education, pensions etc.).53
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) appealed to the Israeli Supreme
Court against the revocation of the Israeli citizenship on behalf of seven women.
The Association asked for the return of their citizenship, and argued that the Israeli
Civil Administration did not inform the women about the actual content of the
51 Allyn Fisher-Ilan, “Israel Eases Steps to Revoke Citizenship,” Reuters, March 28, 2011, http://www.
reuters.com/article/2011/03/28/us-israel-parliament-arabs-idUSTRE72R6OH20110328.
52 This document was given to a Palestinian citizen of Israel at the Gaza municipality in 1988. The
document had one sentence in Arabic saying “with intention to immigrate to the Gaza Strip area”.
53 “Citizenship Reinstated for Arab Israeli Women Who Were Married to Residents of the OPT”
(HAMOKED Center for the Defence of the Individual), accessed March 31, 2014, http://www.acri.org.
il/he/108.
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