Palestinians who choose to study and work abroad are finding out - too late - that they have imperiled their right to return to their hometown.
Abu-Khalaf is one of 4,577 Jerusalemites whose residency was revoked in 2008, according to the data provided by the Interior Ministry to the Center for the Defense of the Individual. That is the highest number of residency revocations since the policy began in 1995. The previous record was in 2006 - 1,363 people whose residency status expired. In 1995, the number was 91. In 1996, the number 739. In 1997, there were 1,067 cases. In 1991, the number was 20.
It's believed that the vast majority of cases are people like them - Jerusalemites who went abroad for reasons of higher education and work experience, with the aim of returning after acquiring that experience and funding - intending to ameliorate the quality of their society. Expelling them from their country and from their hometown is the other side of the statistics of poverty and misery that typify Palestinian Jerusalem, which is under Israeli control.
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