Israel announced Oct. 19 it had officially legalized the status of 4,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank. For the first time in a decade, the Israeli defense ministry allowed the Palestinian Authority to update the status of 4,000 people in its population registry. With a Palestinian West Bank resident card or updated registrations of their address, these people can now apply for work permits in Israel and  travel abroad through the Israel-Jordan Alenby Bridge crossing point.

Out of the 4,000 Palestinians announced yesterday, 1,200 are considered stateless or status-less —people who were born and raised in the West Bank, but have never been issued a Palestinian identity card for various reasons. These reasons include children born at home and never registered properly, people who had entered Palestinian territories in recent years, got married there and stayed without registering, and residents of Palestinian territories who went to live abroad before the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords and got their identity cards revoked.

The other 2,800 are Palestinians who lived in Gaza but fled before the 2007 takeover of Hamas and then settled in the West Bank. These people are currently registered as residents of the Gaza Strip, even though they have not lived there for many years. They will now be able to change their address in the Palestinian population registry.

The Palestinian Authority has been demanding for many years that Israel regularize this situation, which affects hundreds more people on top of the 4,000 now authorized. The problem stems from the fact that according to the Oslo Accords, Ramallah cannot issue valid identity cards without Israeli approval. Thus, many Palestinians have lived in the West Bank for decades without official recognition, living under a constant threat of deportation.