This infographic from Visualizing Palestine describes Israel’s identification system, which restricts where Palestinians can live, which services they can access, and how they can participate in the political system. The ID with the most freedom is dark blue and designated for Jewish Israeli citizens. They have the right to vote and are free to live throughout Israel and 60% of the occupied West Bank. Jewish Israeli ID holders do not experience systematic discrimination.
The second-most free are the blue IDs for Palestinian Citizens of Israel. They are also allowed to vote, but they are barred by admissions committees from living in 68% of Israeli towns. Palestinian Israeli citizens experience legal and de-facto discrimination. Next, the light blue IDs are for East Jerusalem Palestinians. While they have access to most areas, their IDs may be revoked if they live outside of East Jerusalem. East Jerusalem Palestinians are not allowed to vote, and they experience de-facto and legal discrimination in addition to military occupation.
Light green IDs are for West Bank Palestinians: they are not allowed to vote, and they are barred from living in all but 40% of the West Bank due to Israeli settler and military occupation. Finally, dark green IDs are for Gaza Strip Palestinians, who are not allowed to vote or to live outside of Gaza. These Palestinians also live under conditions of military occupation and discrimination and are denied the right to self-determination.
Not all Palestinians are granted IDs. Israel has controlled the Palestinian population registry since 1967 and decides which Palestinians are allowed to enter the country, and which will be left without the right to work, travel, or open a bank account. Israel can also revoke IDs at any time. Further, Israel has stopped processing Palestinian family reunification requests, leaving families separated and unable to travel from one part of the country to another to visit each other. Millions of Palestinians who were forced to flee during the creation of the Israeli state or in the years since due to the violence of Israel’s military occupation are also not granted IDs.
