y, Human Rights Watch called on Israel to lift restrictions on residency, saying they are often arbitrary and violate international and human rights law, including the right to family life. "The result has been to split families apart, to arbitrarily ban people from moving around and to arbitrarily prevent a large number of people from returning to their own homes," said the report's author, Bill Van Esveld. Human Rights Watch said about 35,000 Gazans who moved to the West Bank remain there without permits, while Israel last year agreed to register 2,800 as West Bank residents. The U.S. government estimates that about 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and 1.6 million in Gaza. Israel handed some 40 percent of the West Bank to Palestinian self-rule in the 1990s and withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but never relinquished the final say over who is a legal resident of the territories. Israel has cited security grounds for retaining the right to block entry. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel has granted residency in the West Bank and Gaza to tens of thousands of Palestinians over the years and accused Human Rights Watch of anti-Israel bias. He said Israel's policies are subject to review "by a fiercely independent judiciary." Israel set up the register after a September 1967 census in the West Bank and Gaza, issuing ID cards to nearly 1 million Palestinians. Human Right Watch said at least 270,000 residents were not present during the census,toms shoes discount, having either fled the war three months earlier or spending time abroad for work or study. Israel excluded them from the registry and blocked the possibility of return for many, the report said. A woman known as Umm Basel, born in Gaza in 1967, said her parents fled to Jordan before the census. After life in exile in Egypt and Jordan, neither of which granted her citizenship, she paid smugglers $200 three months ago to sneak her and her son into Gaza through a tunnel. She has since applied to Israel for a Gaza residency permit, but has received no word the request is being processed. She would not give her full name for fear of repercussions. Egypt shares a border with Gaza and largely limits passage to those with Palestinians with Israeli-approved ID cards. Israel's policy on residency rights has fluctuated, along with the ebb and flow of the conflict. Israel has in principle allowed those with ID cards to apply for residency for spouses or children, and over the years, tens of thousands of such requests were granted. However, huge backlogs built up, especially at times of tension,cheap toms shoes sale, and Israel also stripped tens of thousands of their residency on grounds they had stayed abroad too long, the report said. In a related issue, Israel has banned virtually all Palestinian travel between the West Bank and Gaza since the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising in 2000, citing security. The two territories, on opposite sides of Israel, are considered one entity by the international community,toms sale. Hussein al-Ustaz, a Gazan man who moved to the West Bank before the travel ban we Related articles:

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