Interview with Sahar, Jerusalem42 My family is from Jerusalem. My husband and I got married there in 1984. My husband was born and raised in Jerusalem, and it’s the city where two of our three children were born. Recently, Israel revoked our right to reside in Jerusalem, preventing us from our basic right to the city simply because we moved to France for work purposes. When we left in 2001, my son and two daughters were 14, 12 and 8 years old respectively. Since then, we returned to Palestine almost every year. All of us were required to renew our travel documents (laissez-passer) annually. We returned to Palestine often, and consistently renewed the laissez-passer. A few times we renewed our documents at the Israeli Embassy in Paris instead of travelling to Palestine. In 2010, my husband was granted French nationality and since our youngest daughter was still under 18 years of age, she received it with him. A few months ago I received a French “carte de residence” (long-term residency permit), which my other children also have. I applied for this type of French residency in order to avoid the annual renewal of my French residency permit and the associated bureaucratic procedures. Revocation In July 2013, while in Palestine for vacation, my husband and our two daughters went to the Israeli Ministry of Interior for a standard renewal of our daughter’s laissezpasser. There, he was told that our family’s IDs were revoked. The explanation they provided us was that my husband and youngest daughter hold French passports and the rest of us hold “permanent” residence cards in France, and that Israel is no longer the ‘center of our lives.’ Fifteen days remained before our scheduled flight back to France and we were in deep shock and terror. We began to think about how to handle our problem, spoke to media and human rights organizations, and hired a lawyer to represent us. Appeal Currently, we are asking for an extension of the appeal deadline and we are required to bring all the relevant documents to prove that my daughter is a student abroad and that our residence in France is not permanent but temporary. Additionally, we need to translate all documents into Hebrew. Later on, if our appeal is rejected by the Israeli Ministry of Interior, we will appeal through the courts, although we are aware that an Israeli court’s decision won’t be in our favor as the laws regarding residency rights are blatantly discriminatory against Palestinians. This procedure is costing us a lot of money, and we have already spent a large amount on other issues relating to our residence status, such as the yearly renewal of the laissez-passer for our family members and legal fees. It is important to increase awareness about revocation of residency in general. Ours should not be viewed as an individual case but as an issue which Palestinians in Jerusalem are facing on a daily basis. We are interested in confronting the whole issue of residency in Jerusalem. Simply speaking, it is our home. 42 Sahar Awwad (50), East Jerusalem, interview by BADIL, August 2013. 23