RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday protested an Israeli move to expel four senior Hamas officials, including three MPs, from Jerusalem.
"The Israeli government's decision to strip the identities of some Jerusalemites and expel them from their land is extremely serious," he told reporters after meeting with visiting Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann.
"The Palestinian leadership will never accept this because it is a red line," he said.
Israel has sought to strip the Jerusalem IDs from Khaled Abu Arafa, a former minister for Jerusalem affairs, and MPs Ahmad Atoun, Mohammed Totah and Mohammed Abu Teir, a step that would likely result in their expulsion to the West Bank or the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
The men have appealed the decision, with a final ruling expected in September. In the meantime, they have been ordered to remain in the West Bank, according to their lawyer, Fadi al-Qawasmi.
He said the four had been told by the interior ministry that they were being expelled because they are MPs and not because they are Hamas members.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev, however, said the decision was taken because of their membership in a "terrorist organisation."
"Israel is a country where there is rule of law, and this process has been through independent judicial review," he told AFP.
"These people are not Israeli citizens. They are members of a terrorist organisation," he said.
Many Palestinians fear their expulsion could set a precedent for the removal of more of the nearly 270,000 Palestinians living in east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and annexed in a move not recognised internationally.
The Palestinians have demanded east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, while Israel views the entire city as its "eternal, indivisible" capital.
Palestinians living in east Jerusalem hold Israeli-issued IDs that allow them to travel freely in Israel and the West Bank, collect government benefits and vote in local but not national elections.
