JERUSALEM, 21 July 2004 — Palestinian Mahmoud Shehada is preoccupied with one fear: A night-time knock on the door by Israeli soldiers who demand that he leave his home and never return.

Israel says that part of Walaja, a village of terraced olive groves where Mahmoud and his neighbors have lived for more than five decades is in Jerusalem - annexed in a move that is not recognized internationally after the 1967 war.

But the villagers of Walaja hold West Bank identity cards that give them no right to enter the country which lays claim to the land where they live.

“The soldiers said they can come at any time and expel us. There is no security,” said 60-year-old Mahmoud. “Any sound I have to get up and investigate.

“It will happen. If they tell me my house isn’t legal and my presence isn’t legal, then of course it will happen.”

Palestinians and human rights activists say that as Israel prepares to withdraw from the Gaza Strip as part of a plan to “disengage” from Palestinians, it is also trying to exert tighter control on Palestinian access to Arab East Jerusalem.

Residents say Israeli border police have raided Walaja three times this year, arresting 20 men from their beds.

Police also went house to house telling villagers that their presence was unlawful and asking them to sign legal documents. The residents, advised by their lawyer, refused.

“They want the land without the people,” said Yazid Abu Ali, treasurer of Walaja’s local council. “It is a political act.” Israel’s Interior Ministry declined to comment. Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said police were simply enforcing the law.

“We don’t make any distinction. If someone is illegally in Israel, they are illegally in Israel,” he said, adding that Israel had found more than 258,000 Palestinians in Israel without permits in 2003.

For Walaja’s residents, the thought of being forced out is especially bitter because of their history.

The village was built by refugees who fled in 1948 from the war at Israel’s creation to settle on land that was then controlled by Jordan. Israel captured the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

Palestinians say about 500 of 2,300 Walaja villagers live within Jerusalem’s borders, putting them at risk of expulsion from homes they have lived in for decades because they do not hold the correct identity cards.

“It is not unprecedented,” said Yehezkel Lein, head of research for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

“You can find many people in this situation — that they have lived in or were born in Jerusalem and are not recognized as residents. They are under constant threat of expulsion.”

The villagers’ Israeli lawyer said the residents who live within Jerusalem’s borders were given West Bank identity cards by mistake after the war.

Walaja residents said Israel ignored them for years before cracking down in the 1990s, stepping up activity this year with arrests and house-to-house warnings to leave.

At some stage, they also expect their village could be divided by the barrier Israel says it is building to stop bombers.

The World Court agreed with the Palestinians this month that it is illegal to build it on occupied land.

B’Tselem says Israel has tried to reduce the number of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem by restricting building, revoking residency and social benefits, and neglecting infrastructure.

Walaja residents say building permits are impossible to get because of a lack of zoning plans for Arab areas — putting homes at risk of demolition. Some have already been destroyed.

Activists say many of Walaja’s problems could be solved if Israel reclassified the villagers as Jerusalem residents but many say they do not want to be a part of Israel.

“We don’t need Jerusalem IDs. We are in the West Bank,” said Abu Ali. “But if a Jerusalem ID would protect us, so be it.” The people of Walaja live within site of their former village, marked by a clump of trees planted after Israel destroyed it decades ago. They say they do not intend to flee again.

“I am not a donkey,” said Muhammad Al-Atrash, 23, who spent 16 days in jail after being arrested in a pre-dawn raid for being illegally present in his home.

Adnan Al-Atrash, deputy head of the Walaja council, said soldiers had come to his home three times, arresting two adult sons and delivering a warning he has no intention of heeding.

“They said: We want to inform you that your presence here is illegal. I told them I was here before Israel ... You are the ones who came illegally to me.”