Taking Palestinians resident may be 'war crime'

Israel is pushing Jerusalem's Palestinian residents to leave their homes through a policy of systematic transfer that violates international law, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

"Israel claims to treat Jerusalem as a unified city, but the reality is effectively one set of rules for Jews and another for Palestinians," Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director, said in a report released on Tuesday.

The report comes two days after an Israeli court decided to strip Alla Zayoud, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, of his citizenship after he carried out an attack.

It was the first ruling of its kind, according to Israel-based Arab rights group Adalah.

Omar Shakir, HRW's director for Israel and the Palestinian territories, told AFP news agency that the decision to revoke Zayoud's nationality "would render him stateless, in violation of Israel's obligations under international human rights law".

UCJ, UNILORIN.