A Palestinian human Rights group recently won a court appeal that was submitted to the Israeli Higher Court requesting the Israeli Authorities to release classified information about the confiscation of Identity Cards from Palestinian Jerusalemites.

As per the report, between 1967 and 1996, the Israeli Ministry of Interior had confiscated more than 4000 Israeli identity cards from Palestinian Jerusalemites, an act which meant ceasing their historical ownership and rights to their homes in Jerusalem and eventually banning them from entering the city since no Palestinian can enter the city without having such an ID or getting the approval pass from the Israeli Authorities. That, in addition to losing their medicare rights and other social services.

The Palestinian human rights group regarded this as a deliberate Israeli policy to evacuate Arab East Jerusalem from its majority Palestinian population. The confiscation of 4000 Identity Cards from Palestinian Jerusalemites also meant that their spouses and dependants lost their rights as well, and assuming that each had a minimum of 2, the total number would be at least 8000.

The following are some documented statistics as released by the group which shows a staggering rise of more than 600% in some years:
 

Year	Number of Incidents
1967	105
1968	395
1969	178
1970	327
1971	126
1972	93
1973	77
1974	45
1975	54
1976	42
1977	35
1978	36
1979	91
1980	158
1981	51
1982	74
1983	616
1984	161
1985	99
1986	84
1987	23
1988	2
1989	32
1990	36
1991	20
1992	41
1993	32
1994	45
1995	96
1996	689

11 August, 1997