The Removal of Two Jerusalemite Prisoners Signals an Expansion of Targeting Prisoners and Freed Prisoners

SadaNews - The Palestinian Prisoners' Association and the Palestinian Prisoners Club stated that the Israeli authorities' decision to remove two Jerusalemite prisoners, one of whom is a freed prisoner, constitutes a dangerous pretext for targeting thousands of prisoners and freed prisoners in Jerusalem and the occupied territories of 1948, whether they are Israeli citizens or possess Jerusalemite identity.

The decision is based on a racist law, the law of revoking citizenship and residency enacted by the occupation in 2023, which is one of the most prominent legislations aimed at undermining the Palestinian presence in the occupied territories of 1948 and in occupied Jerusalem. This decision comes in light of statements from the leaders of the occupation, foremost among them Netanyahu, who signed it, showing their intention to expel Palestinians and remove them. They brazenly commit crimes in full view and hearing of the world and compete to showcase further brutality.

The two organizations clarified that the deportation procedures are carried out, according to this racist law, either to the West Bank or to the Gaza Strip. According to the families of the two prisoners, they did not receive any official notice, but learned about the revocation of their citizenship and residency from the media regarding the issuance of the deportation order.

The association and the club pointed out that this dangerous precedent establishes a new phase of targeting prisoners and freed prisoners in Jerusalem and the occupied territories of 1948, as part of a systematic policy that has affected them and their families through various tools, foremost among them the racist legislations that have impacted all aspects of their lives, with the aim of displacing citizens through all means available to the occupation system.

The two organizations confirmed that Jerusalemites have fundamentally faced, even before the crime of genocide, a rising series of Israeli policies that have extended the nakba against them. The rate of arrests, demolitions, confiscation, and occupation has increased, alongside the deportation decisions that have targeted thousands, especially around Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings. They added that exorbitant taxes, fines, and financial compensations estimated at millions of shekels annually, in addition to organized terror, all constitute systematic tools of forced displacement.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Association and the Palestinian Prisoners Club considered that the initiation of implementing this law, with the intention of the occupation to expand its application, represents a new tool for forced displacement under a legal cover.

They renewed their call to international bodies to end the systematic incapacitation regarding the escalating Israeli crimes, which represent an extension of the crime of genocide through the collective targeting of Palestinian citizens, the destruction of their livelihoods, and their push towards forced displacement.

They also affirmed that deportation is one of the most dangerous of these tools, as it constitutes a crime that amounts to a war crime and a crime against humanity under the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.