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Eyewitness: West Bank lockdown as IDF order threatens thousands with deportation


Manal Khalil is a Palestinian resident of the West Bank who spoke to The Sitch Web site in March when the IDF put the West Bank on lockdown. With the situation intensifying and the threat of mass deportations looming, Adriano Contreras and Brian Lenzo spoke again to Manal about the latest developments in Israel's occupation.
ACCORDING TO Haaretz, the IDF has issued new orders to deport Palestinians in Israeli territory and expel those in the West Bank who it deems to be "infiltrators." What are your thoughts on that?

FIRST, I would just like to point out that those who Israel calls infiltrators are Palestinian citizens. Some of them were born in Gaza, or their parents were, and that's what their Palestinian ID states.

For Israel, this means that they cannot be living in the West Bank and should be deported. So it's not only that Palestinians can't travel between the West Bank and Gaza, but if a Gazan is married to a Palestinian in the West Bank, they can't live there anymore! This implies that many families are going to be affected by this, because they will be forced to leave, or at least one of the parents or kids will--if not imprisoned, then charged with fines. more

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