St. Yves Launches its Short Animated Movie “Preserving and Reinstating Residency Status in Jerusalem”

• Date: 2017-10-27

The Society of St. Yves – Catholic Center for Human Rights, in cooperation with Embrace, launched its short animated movie “Preserving and Reinstating Residency Status in Jerusalem” on Monday, October 23^rd 2017, at Yabous Cultural Center in Jerusalem, which aims at raising the awareness of the Palestinians in Jerusalem suffering from the discriminatory Israeli residency policies on how to preserve their residency status and what to do in case of revocation by Israeli authorities.

Adv. Raffoul Rofa, Director of St. Yves welcomed the participants and partners at the event,  and thanked colleagues that have worked on making this short movie which aims at raising awareness amongst Jerusalemite Palestinians on their residency rights and entitlements through innovative and creative ways. Mr. Tim Levsi, CEO of Embrace Middle East, funders of this project, thanked St. Yves for the efforts and work given to assist and protect Jerusalemites suffering from Israeli laws and policies. He went on by expressing his appreciation to be St. Yves’ partners and highlighted the importance of raising legal awareness amongst communities and empowering them through advocacy tools such as this one in order to access their rights.

The movie screening was followed by a panel discussion, including interventions by Adv. Haytham Khatib, head of the legal department at St. Yves and the Jerusalemite writer, journalist and activist Mr. Rassem Ibeidat.

Adv. Khatib concentrated on the legal frameworks governing the Jerusalemite residency status, including revocations and the legal ways of re-instate them,   whereas Mr. Ibeidat addressed the social and political impacts that such Israeli discriminatory residency policies have on the Palestinians in Jerusalem, in addition to the dangerous demographic plan behind these policies that are in grave violation of e international law. The discussion was followed by a Q&A session.

The event was attended by partner civil society organizations, local associations, academics and Jerusalemites under threat of having their residencies revoked.