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Hamas slams PA for removing religion from ID cards

Hamas is saying that the Palestinian Authority's decision to abolish religion from national ID cards is a prelude to accommodating Jewish settlers in a future Palestinian state.
Palestinians show their ID cards to Israeli police inside a bus in Jerusalem August 12, 2004. Investigators were still examining if members of a militant cell which bombed a West Bank checkpoint Wednesday were still at large. The blast killed two Palestinians and wounded 16 people. REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen  GCM/SM - RTR8GY0
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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.

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