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RAMALLAH, February 27, 2012 (WAFA)

Israel has denied over 14,000 Arab residents of occupied East Jerusalem the right to live in their city of birth, a report by the PLO Negotiations Affair Department (NAD) said Monday.

It also demolished 3,300 Palestinian-owned homes in the city, it added.

NAD report monitored Israeli unilateral measures in East Jerusalem since its occupation in 1967.

The report said Israel withdrew right to live in the city from 14,000 Palestinians, around 50% of them from 2006 and 2008. The Israeli action affected more than 20% of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem.

In addition, Israel demolished 3,300 Palestinian homes and historical and religious sites in East Jerusalem since 1967, around 500 of them in the past six years only.

The Israeli Apartheid Wall isolated around 70,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, who found themselves living behind the wall and have to go through military checkpoints to reach their work and schools in the Israeli-annexed section, said NAD report.

It said the Israeli closure policy imposed on East Jerusalem prevented three million Muslim and Christian Palestinians from reaching their holy places in the city.

NAD also said the Israeli government continues to enact the Absentee Property Law of 1950 that allows it to seize Palestinian property in the city on allegation of absence of their owners even though the owners are still living in the city or near it.

R.Q./M.S.