Huckabee likens Trump’s Muslim ban to Israel’s immigration policies

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3. Quietly, East Jerusalem Palestinians Are Acquiring Israeli Citizenship

http://972mag.com/quietly-east-jerusalem-palestinians-are-becoming-israeli-citizens/46298/

There has been a trend in recent years of Palestinian permanent residents of East Jerusalem applying for and getting Israeli citizenship. Will this trend provide freedom, or further fragment Palestinian national identity?

Today marks the 45th anniversary of what Palestinians and the international community refer to as the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, and what some Israelis refer to as the unification of Jerusalem. It is a good opportunity to examine one recent example of how unification or illegal annexation is changing the identity and political future of the Palestinian residents of the city.

As an East Jerusalem resident, I am struck by a recent trend: many of my friends and acquaintances who hold Jerusalem identification cards and documents of permanent residency rather than Israeli citizenship are quietly applying for and obtaining Israeli passports.

It is not immediately clear why. Current residents of East Jerusalem - numbering over 350,000, or 38% of the city's total population - already go about their daily lives, shop at Israeli malls, use Israeli services, frequent Israeli restaurants and bars, send their children to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and receive Israeli social and health benefits. What does upgrading their status from East Jerusalem residents to citizens of Israel add? Why did East Jerusalem residents refuse the Israeli offer of citizenship in 1967, and why are they actively seeking to obtain it now, especially given that citizenship requires them to pledge the controversial oath of allegiance to the Israeli state?