Israel gives legal status to 4K in gesture to Palestinians
ABC News
Israel says it will grant legal residency to 4,000 Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza
JERUSALEM -- Israel said Tuesday it would grant legal residency to 4,000 Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, a gesture to the Palestinian Authority that will allow people who have lived under severe restrictions for years to get official IDs.
It's one of a series of gestures announced after a rare high-level meeting in August between Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas aimed at strengthening the PA, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and coordinates with Israel on security.
Israel is trying to bolster the increasingly unpopular and autocratic PA in order to weaken its militant Hamas rivals, who rule the Gaza Strip. Other gestures include loaning some $155 million to the cash-strapped PA and authorizing an additional 15,000 permits for Palestinian laborers to work in Israel and its settlements.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state and has shown no interest in reviving peace talks, which stalled out more than a decade ago. Israel is also continuing to build and expand settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories it captured in the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for their future state.
