Center of Life Israel’s treatment of Jerusalemites with regards to their permanent residency intensified in conjunction with the Oslo Agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel. In 1995, and without prior notice to the public, Israel’s Ministry of Interior initiated a “center of life” policy whereby residency became a matter to be maintained by its holder through daily practice. The policy gave the Ministry of Interior the power to invalidate the status of a permanent resident if it determined that their “center of life” had moved “outside of Israel” – this includes Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The policy made residency revocation easier by establishing more stringent criteria than the previous Entry into Israel Regulations. To implement this policy, the Ministry of Interior began to demand that permanent residents prove that Jerusalem was their “center of life” by submitting a high standard of proof, including home ownership papers or rent contracts, bills for municipal services like water and electricity, payment of municipal taxes, telephone bills, salary slips, proof of receiving medical care in the city and certification of any children’s school registration in the city. Because of the stringency and often non-transparent processes of the policy, the “center of life” was – and still remains – an impediment even to a person who had never lived outside of the city. All Palestinian Jerusalemites who could not meet the severe criteria for seven years or more lost their right to live in the city and were forced to leave their homes, their families and their jobs. Palestinians with revoked residency were denied the right to live and work in Jerusalem as well as in Israel. Furthermore, they and their families were deprived of social benefits. The status of their children was also revoked, except for cases in which the second parent had valid residency status.43 The Center of Life policy was often implemented retroactively and individuals who had not previously met the new, stricter definition also came under the risk of revocation.44 In addition to confiscated identification cards, those who do not fulfill the requirements of the authorities to their satisfaction face denial of family unification and denial of child registration in the Population Registry. At particular risk are families with mixed residencies where some members held West Bank-only residency, or the thousands of Jerusalem families who moved to the Palestinian areas outside the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, often in response to restrictive planning and residential development targeting Palestinian areas of Jerusalem. Estimates during the 43 B’Tselem, “Revocation of Residency in East Jerusalem” (B’Tselem- The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, May 6, 2010), http://www.btselem.org/printpdf/51824. 44 Ben-Hillel, “The Legal Status Pf East Jerusalem,” 25. 24