of some 140,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank, representing over 10 percent of the population, and another 108,878 living in the Gaza Strip, thus dramatically shifting the demographic composition of the territory.25 Interview with Munir, Berlin26 In 1962, I left my village near Bethlehem and went to search for work in Germany. I have been living in Germany since, and today I have German citizenship. After the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, Israel conducted a census of the Palestinian population therein. Since I was in Germany at the time I was unable to register, and for this reason I was stripped of my residency rights in my own homeland. In 1968, I visited my parents in Beit Sahour. I was about to get married and go back to Germany with my wife. On my way in I was told by the Israeli authorities that I had no right to live in Beit Sahour anymore. No one knew that the census would entail such dramatic consequences for me and the others who were not in their country at that time. In 1969, my wife and I went to Palestine for a visit, and while crossing the border from Jordan to the West Bank we were told that my wife’s Palestinian residency had also been revoked, as she had left permanently for another country. We were completely shocked and were not given any explanation by the Israeli authorities for this act. Today we only enter our homeland as German tourists with a tourist visa. The idea of only being allowed to enter Palestine as a tourist makes me sad. Israel has stolen our natural right to live and reside in our homeland with our family and friends. Even though today, after spending all these years in Germany, we are not planning to re-settle in Palestine. I still believe that my family and I should have the right to do so anytime we choose. Israel should not be allowed to deny us residency in our own homeland. In a request filed by HaMoked Center for the Defence of the Individual via the Freedom of Information Act, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories was compelled to release documentation for the period between 1967 and 1994 which showed that 44,730 Palestinian with Gaza ID lost their residency rights because they were absent from Gaza Strip for seven years or more; 54,730 because they did not respond to the 1981 census; and 7,249 because they did not respond to the 1988 census.27 As of 2013, between 40,000 and 50,000 Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip without residency recognized by Israel.28 25 Akiva Eldar, “Israel Admits It Revoked Residency Rights of a Quarter Million Palestinians,” Haaretz, June 2, 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-admits-it-revoked-residencyrights-of-a-quarter-million-palestinians-1.435778. 26 Munir Mara (69), Berlin, Germany, interview by BADIL, September 2013. 27 “‘Ceased Residency’: Between 1967 and 1994 Israel Revoked the Residency of Some Quarter Million Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” (HAMOKED Center for the Defence of the Individual, June 12, 2012), http://www.hamoked.org/Document.aspx?dID=Updates1175. 28 B’Tselem, Israel Must Take Action to Regulate the Status of Tens of Thousands of Gazans Living without IDs (B’Tselem- The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, July 24, 2013), http://www.btselem.org/printpdf/137639. 19