15 June 2004

Mr. Avraham Poraz
Minister of the Interior
1 Kaplan Street
Jerusalem

Dear Sir:

Re: Preventing expulsion of residents of Nu'man (Mazmuria) from their homes

On 7 June 2004, the High Court of Justice denied the petition of residents of Nu'man, East Jerusalem, to order the Ministry of the Interior to grant them permanent residency status in Jerusalem. The High Court adopted the State Attorney's Office's position that the proper forum for hearing the matter is the District Court, sitting as the Court for Administrative Matters.

The High Court also cancelled the temporary injunction, which it issued on 26 August 2003, preventing the authorities from arresting village residents or expelling them from their homes until a final decision on the petition. The temporary injunction will terminate on 17 June 2004.

Although the grounds for denying the petition are technical, cancellation of the temporary injunction subjects the villagers to expulsion. The likelihood of expulsion is especially great in light of the repeated attempts of the Israel Police Force to expel residents from their homes during the months that preceded the injunction.

Palestinians began to live in Nu'man in the 1930s. During the census that was taken in 1967, Israeli officials mistakenly registered the villagers as residents of the West Bank, and the villagers did not receive permanent residency status in Israel. Over the years, the residents filed numerous requests to the Interior Ministry to fix their status as residents of Jerusalem and to obtain Israeli identity cards. However, the Interior Ministry constantly and arbitrarily rejected their requests. As a result, the residents are considered to be in Israel illegally while they are in their homes and in the village in which they were born.

During the past few years, the IDF has blocked all access roads to the village from the west (from the direction of Jerusalem). The residents' access to nearby Palestinian villages in the West Bank, which provide them with vital services, has been restricted following construction of the separation barrier east of the village. There now remains only a narrow opening in the barrier through which the residents can leave the village. However, if the residents' right to live in the village is not recognized, the Ministry of Defense is liable to close this opening, and thereby trap the residents between the barrier, to the east of the village, and the physical obstacles that prevent their entry into Jerusalem, to the west.

For these reasons, I request that you grant the villagers Jerusalem permanent residency status as soon as possible. Until that time, I urge you to grant the residents permits to stay temporarily in Jerusalem, which will protect them from being expelled from their homes and enable them to exhaust their legal remedies.

Respectfully,

Jessica Montell
Executive Director