Following the war in 1967, Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem as well as a number of villages surrounding it, which previously were under Jordanian rule, applying its rule and law over the land.

However, the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem was not fully annexed and was instead granted the status of permanent residents rather than citizens of the state of Israel. A status which can be lost over staying abroad over 7 years, obtaining a foreign residency or citizenship.

In 1967 on the wake of Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank -including East Jerusalem- Israel annexed East Jerusalem, applying its rule and law over the land, never the less, It did not grant the inhabitants of East Jerusalem a status of citisenship but rather permanent residency – through a census, which was done from house to house registering people who were physically in the house at that certain time and granting them a permenant residency status rahter than citizenship.

As a result many people who were at the time East Jerusalem residents, in the sense that they were born in Jerusalem, lived in it and had their family history and life conducted in it were not registered as residents, be it for them being away at work, caught out of the city at the time, fled the horros of war, and then came back later on after the census. All those people lost their rights and their ties with their families and are considered to be absentees.