Palestinian baby denied Jerusalem ID card is blocked from access to health and other services

(pic: Seven-month-old Nouralden Issa Abbassi’s future is in limbo because Israel won’t issue him Jerusalem residency rights. Jillian Kestler-D’Amours)

From The Electronic Intifada

Jerusalem baby denied rights by Israeli apartheid

by Jillian Kestler-D'Amours

Smiling and wide-eyed, seven-month-old Nouralden Issa Abbassi is happily getting passed between the arms of his mother, grandmother and uncle in the living room of the Abbassi family home in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem.

But while the family appears carefree, the reality is that Israel’s decision to deny Nouralden a Jerusalem identification card — and by extension block his right to access public health services and education — has left everyone anxious and concerned for the future.

“They refused to give Nouralden an ID [card] because they don’t want him to stay here,” Nouralden’s mother, Riham Abbassi, told The Electronic Intifada. “They don’t want us to live here because of what Issa did.”

Issa Abbassi, Nouralden’s father, was sentenced to ten years in prison in May 2010 for allegedly shooting at Israeli settler security guards near the illegal settlement of Beit Yonathan, which sits in the heart of the Silwan neighborhood of Baten al-Hawa.

Issa was already behind bars at Ashqelon prison — one of four prison facilities run by the Israeli General Security Service (GSS), also known as the Shin Bet or Shabak — when Nouralden was born in East Jerusalem late last year.

As a result, the Israeli Ministry of Interior rejected the family’s application for the baby’s Jerusalem ID card, arguing that Issa himself would have to apply when he is released from prison since he is the only parent with Jerusalem residency rights. Riham — originally from the East Jerusalem village of Kafr Aqab, part of which sits on the West Bank side of Israel’s wall — has a West Bank-only ID card.

“The Bible and the Koran both say that the child should not be punished for what the father did. This is collective punishment. Ten years [in prison] is punishment enough. The family should not be punished too,” Nouralden’s grandfather, Daoud Abbassi, told The Electronic Intifada. more

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