It’s really a complicated topic, but anyways I will explain.
Israel doesn’t know immediately know off the bat at the border who’s Palestinian and who’s not, unless you carry a Palestinian passport or your birthplace is Palestine and/or your name sounds Palestinian.
And Israel divides Palestinians into categories and they don’t get treated the same/enjoy the same rights, and Israel categorizes them and determines which is which with different IDs that it issues.
Anyways, Israel divides Palestinians to mainly 5 categories (4 of these 5 get their own different ID that’s issued by Israel):
Palestinians of Gaza
Palestinians of the West Bank
Palestinians of Jerusalem
Palestinians of ~Israel~
Exiled Palestinians (Don’t have IDs issued by Israel)
Each of these 5 have different travel restrictions and different living restrictions:
Let me break it down:
For Palestinians of Gaza (like me):
We are not allowed to live in ~Israel~ (this one is obvious), or the West Bank, or Jerusalem
We are not allowed to travel to ~Israel~, the West Bank, or Jerusalem (Unless we apply for a temporary travel permit that Israel issues, which is not easy to obtain)
For Palestinians of the WB (I’m not entirely aware of their restrictions but I will list what I know):
They
are not allowed to live in ~Israel~, Jerusalem, or Gaza (They technically can live in Gaza if they someway how managed to sneak in but they will face difficulties with anything document related)
They can’t travel to ~Israel~, or Jerusalem (For Jerusalem it depends on the mood of the Israeli soldier at the checkpoint and how naive they’re, sometimes they would let them, sometimes they won’t.), or Gaza (during Morsi’s time, they were able to go to Gaza via Egypt but after he’s gone, now it became almost impossible for even Palestinians of Gaza to go in and out of Gaza)
For Palestinians of Jerusalem:
They’re only allowed to live in Jerusalem, but if they live outside of Jerusalem (let’s say the WB) for more than 7 years they cannot go back and live there anymore. (I’m not sure if they can live in ~Israel~)
They can’t travel to Gaza
For Palestinians of ~Israel~:
They
are not allowed to live in Gaza or the West Bank.
They are prohibited to travel to Gaza, and if they did they would be tried in court.
For Palestinians in Exile:
Not allowed to live in any part of Palestine (They also technically can live in Gaza if they someway how managed to sneak in but they will face difficulties with anything document related)
Can visit Palestine if they have Western passports (Australian, British, Canadian, American, etc.) and if the Israeli officer at the border/checkpoint was in a good mood that day.
Also here’s an infographic that might help:
So yeah, it’s not black and white.
At the end it all depends on what you look like, whether your name sounds Palestinian or not, your birthplace, whether you carry a Palestinian ID or not (and the type of that ID), what kind of passport you carry, and also the mood of the Israeli officer at the border that day.
Even with my Canadian passport, I can’t easily go to the WB or Jerusalem, once I step at the border they will see that my birthplace says Gaza (Canada lists the name of Palestinian cities as the place of birth instead of listing Palestine) and they will cross-check my name with the Israeli population registry for Palestinians, and find out I’ve a Palestinian ID.
Once they found out they will interrogate me for hours and ask me a series of questions, and depending on how I answered those questions and on their mood they will either:
Turn me back.
Tell me to go to Gaza and apply for a travel permit from there.
Offer me to denounce my Palestinian ID (i.e. give away my right to live in and travel to Gaza) and then let me in.
Let me in (Which rarely happens, only 10%-20% of the Gazans I know here (who carry Palestinian IDs and Canadian passports) were allowed in.)
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