On Feb. 2, and without any warning, the Palestinian Authority (PA) decided to stop including religious affiliation on national ID cards, so that there will no longer be any differentiation between Muslims and Christians on the IDs.
Hassan Alawi, the undersecretary of the PA Ministry of Interior, stressed that the decision, which he described as “extraordinary,” came upon the instruction of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. According to Alawi, since religion is mentioned on a citizen’s birth certificate — as per the Basic Law, which provides for non-discrimination between Palestinians on the basis of sex, race or religion — there is no need to repeat it on the ID.