JERUSALEM—Israel’s decision to expel four Hamas politicians from Jerusalem threatened to set off a new crisis over the disputed city and could hinder U.S. efforts to restart peace talks.
The expulsions of the three Palestinian lawmakers and a former Cabinet minister could start as early as Friday. Israel has not said where they would be sent, but the West Bank is a possible destination.
Israel revoked their Jerusalem residency rights in 2006 and arrested them because they belong to Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls the Gaza Strip and has carried out scores of deadly attacks against Israelis. The expulsion orders were delayed because the men have been in prison until recently.
Israel has stripped thousands of Palestinians of their residency rights in east Jerusalem since capturing and annexing the area in the 1967 Mideast War. However, human rights activists said Israel has never before stripped Palestinians of Jerusalem residency because of their political affiliation.
“This is a very dangerous precedent,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said. “We won’t accept it. We won’t allow it. We won’t just overlook it.” He said the Israeli government was creating “the biggest obstacles yet on the path to peace.”
Jerusalem is holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians and the fate of Israeli-annexed eastern sector of the city has been the most explosive issue in two decades of on-and-off negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as a capital, while Israel says it won’t relinquish any part of the city.
Some 190,000 Israelis have moved into Jewish neighborhoods built since 1967 in east Jerusalem, surrounding the older Arab sections, and Palestinians say this is undermining their claims to the city.
Most of the 250,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem carry Israeli-issued residency documents. Israel has stripped those documents from about 13,000, according to government statistics obtained by the Israeli human rights group HaMoked. But in those cases, Israel cited administrative reasons such as staying away from the city for too long.
Palestinians say revoking Jerusalem IDs is part of an overall Israeli policy to reduce the number of Jerusalem’s Palestinians, who make up one-third the city’s population.
Hamas and the Western-backed Abbas are bitter rivals, but Abbas apparently spoke out because of concerns that the expulsions will set a precedent of removing Palestinians from Jerusalem for their political views.
The four Hamas politicians said they won’t leave voluntarily. “They will have to yank me out,” said Hamas lawmaker Mohammed Abu Teir, one of those set for expulsion.
If Israel goes through with the expulsions, it will almost certainly complicate U.S. attempts to restart direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. For now, a U.S. envoy is shuttling between the two sides, but Abbas insists he won’t resume direct talks until Israel freezes all settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories it captured in the 1967 Mideast War.
Israel says it has the right to expel the four because they belong to a terror organization.
“The only precedent here is a very clear warning to Hamas and all those who promote terror that adhering to violence will (have a) backlash,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.
Abu Teir and two other Jerusalemites facing expulsion—Mohammed Totah and Ahmed Abu Atoun—were among those elected on a Hamas slate in 2006 when Jerusalem’s Arabs participated in elections for a Palestinian parliament. The fourth politician is former Cabinet minister Khaled Abu Arafa.
Israel revoked their Jerusalem residency rights in 2006 and arrested them, along with dozens of Hamas politicians from the West Bank, after the capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-allied militants in Gaza.
“My parents and relatives have been in this village and near Jerusalem for 500 years, and you’ve only been here since ’48 when the occupation started,” Abu Teir said, addressing the Israelis.
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