Jerusalem-born bookshop owner loses residency rights in city of his birth

Sign the petition in support of Munther Fahmy's (pictured right) fight to live in his own country. He is now only allowed to enter Jerusalem as a tourist. Munther has been a leading light behind the Palestine Festival of Literature for some years. This, from Mondoweiss:

a year ago we took the Interior Ministry to court to reinstate my residency status and I lost because they invoked a racist law they have on the books which strips any resident of Jerusalem (all residents of Jerusalem who holds ID cards are Arabs, Jews in Jerusalem and everywhere in Israel are citizens) who left Jerusalem for 7 years or more and holds a foreign passport of his or her blue Israeli residency ID card and right to live there...

...On that day, my request was rejected in the first minute of the session! To add insult to injury, I was told to consider myself lucky that I was allowed to come and go as a tourist that long and even dare to start a business while I am a tourist, and then finally saying that "if this happens in YOUR country the USA, you would be deported on the first plane" . Unfortunately, the session was in Hebrew and I was not privy to this remark by the judge until the end of the session. I would have loved to remind the judges that people born in the USA don’t have to go to the Supreme Court to ask it to intervene with the Immigration authorities to let them live in their country of birth!

The last insult was that I should write a letter within 30 days from Feb 17 2011 "begging" the Interior Ministry (the one I am suing!) to please reinstate my residency! more

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