Grace Kelly
November 13, 2026
Since October of 2023, billions of people across the world have been fixated on the ongoing genocide in Gaza, confronted with news headlines detailing the targeting of civilians, including children, sustained bombing campaigns, and the deliberate deprivation of food and medicine. While the scale of destruction in Gaza demands urgent international attention, it is important to also recognize that the challenges Palestinians face extend beyond the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian experience varies dramatically. Palestinians in Gaza, Jerusalem, the West Bank and the diaspora all face unique political, social, legal and economic issues that are often overlooked. Beyond headlines of overt violence, it is important to understand the many ways in which the effects of the occupation are also embedded in ordinary life. In particular, this article focuses on the experience of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.
Annexation of East Jerusalem
Jerusalem, although intended as a shared city according to the United Nations, has remained firmly under Israeli control since 1967. During the Six Day War, Israel invaded and seized the West Bank and Palestinian East Jerusalem, placing the entire city under central administration. The United Nations quickly condemned the occupation as illegal under international law, yet Jerusalem has remained under de facto Israeli control since.
When Israel annexed East Jerusalem, Palestinians were designated as permanent residents under the 1952 Law of Entry into Israel, which applies to foreigners immigrating into country. Although they had already been living in the city, Palestinians were suddenly regarded as foreign “aliens” who had entered Israel in June 1967.
What Does it Mean to be a “Permanent Resident”?
Today, about 40% of Jerusalem’s one million residents are Palestinian, nearly all of whom live in East Jerusalem. Just 9% of Jerusalem’s Palestinians have Israeli citizenship, while the vast majority are stateless people considered permanent residents under Israeli law and ineligible for Palestinian Authority passports. Their precarious legal status excludes these Palestinians from the rights given to citizens of Israel, such as voting in national elections, and forces them to comply with strict administrative requirements or risk the revocation of their status.
The vulnerability of this legal status is perhaps best demonstrated by the “centre of life” policies introduced in the 1990s. According to these laws, Palestinian Jerusalemites must constantly prove that Jerusalem remains their principal place of residence through documentation such as rental contracts, municipal property tax receipts, utility bills and children’s school registration. Periods of residence abroad longer than seven years, establishing a “centre of life” elsewhere, or acquiring residency or citizenship in another country can also place their status at risk under applicable rules. As a result, Palestinian Jerusalemites cannot freely decide where they want to live and are prohibited from residing in neighboring cities such as Bethlehem, where living costs are significantly lower. Permanent residents are therefore forced to decide between pursuing opportunities and more affordable housing elsewhere, or preserving their legal right to return to Jerusalem.
Additionally, permanent residency is not automatically granted to spouses or children born outside Jerusalem. Instead, families are forced to go through lengthy child registration and family unification processes. Since 2002, Israel has stopped processing all family reunification applications in order to prevent Palestinians married to Israeli citizens or residents of Jerusalem from receiving citizenship or permanent residency status. Without either status, Palestinians cannot legally live or work in Jerusalem, cannot open bank accounts, cannot obtain driving licenses or travel documents and do not have access to public schools, insurances or state services. Children with one parent who is neither an Israeli citizen nor a permanent resident of Jerusalem do not receive identification cards. Therefore, there are currently tens of thousands of unregistered Palestinian children living in Jerusalem who do not have access to education or healthcare.
Because permanent residency does not grant Palestinians a passport, noncitizen residents in Jerusalem cannot travel without obtaining a temporary Israeli travel document from Israel, Jordan or, depending on their destination, both. About 25% of Palestinians in Jerusalem hold Jordanian travel documents, which are typically valid for five years. Israeli noncitizen travel documents, typically valid for two years, require a lengthy application process. Applicants can expect to wait several months for an appointment and must provide extensive documentation and pay fees of up to 300 shekels, or 86 euros.
Economic Disempowerment
The challenges faced by Palestinian residents of Jerusalem are further compounded by economic inequality, as many struggle to meet the rising cost of living. An estimated 60% of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem live below the poverty line. The cost of food and other basic necessities in Jerusalem is considerably higher than in neighbouring West Bank communities, where many goods can be purchased at lower prices.
However, due to restrictions on entering Israel with food and goods from Palestinian territories, Palestinians are prevented from entering Jerusalem with groceries bought in the much cheaper West Bank. According to a private security company that manages several checkpoints for the Israeli Defense Ministry, it is prohibited to bring food into Israel from the Palestinian territories if the quantity exceeds “five pitas, one container of hummus and canned tuna, one small bottle or can of drink, one or two slices of cheese, a few spoonfuls of sugar, and five to ten olives.”
The Geopolitics of Urban Planning
Furthermore, discriminatory urban planning policies in East Jerusalem function as a mechanism of territorial control and are utilized to encourage demographic change. In 2018, Israel resumed the Settlement of Land Title process in East Jerusalem, which involves formally determining land ownership and registering property rights. Since then, only 1% of the land registrations finalized have been registered in the names of Palestinian owners, while much of the remainder was classified as state land.
At the same time, Israeli authorities have advanced plans for tens of thousands of housing units for Jewish residents, including developments on land subject to these registration procedures. Human rights organizations have argued that these policies, combined with restrictive zoning regulations and the limited approval of building plans for Palestinian neighbourhoods, create unequal opportunities for housing development and contribute to the displacement of Palestinian residents.
These disparities are further reinforced by the inconsistent or occasionally nonexistent provision of basic municipal services such as education, water infrastructure, road maintenance and waste collection to Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem.
Restrictions on Movement, Surveillance, and Police Repression
Daily life for Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem is further hindered by extensive policing, surveillance and practices that human rights organizations have characterized as discriminatory and intimidating. East Jerusalem is subject to a different policing regime than West Jerusalem, which largely disregards international agreements.
Policing in East Jerusalem is led by the targeting of youth, particularly in night raids, low thresholds for “preventative” detentions, the regular imprisonment of children as young as 12, and the extensive use of house arrest for children under 14. In addition, policing is overwhelmingly led by intelligence, and the city uses sophisticated surveillance technology such as facial recognition. Protests and political expression, including in online spaces, are suppressed by authorities and any events assumed to be connected to the Palestinian Authority are
criminalized. Palestinians accused of wrongdoing face exceptionally harsh sentences, such as 20 years for stone throwing. All of this is compounded with very low rates of prosecution for violence against Palestinians and police protection of Israeli settlers.
It is important to note the combined effects of the legal inequalities, systems of economic disempowerment, territorial urban planning policies, restrictions on movement, intense surveillance and discriminatory policing tactics all faced by Palestinian Jerusalemites on a daily basis. For many Palestinians, Jerusalem is not just a home, but also a “highly explosive psychological environment.” Since childhood, the daily lives of Jerusalem’s “Permanent Residents” are filled with a sense of vulnerability, fear and uncertainty in the face of systems designed to control.
Photo Source: sweis78 on flickr, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.)
