Will Palestinians be allowed to become UAE citizens under new Emirati law?

The vast majority - over 88% - of residents in the UAE are not citizens. 

The UAE is now taking small steps to change that.

Yesterday, the Emirates announced that it will grant citizenship to some foreigners, if they can contribute significantly to UAE's society.

This includes  investors, doctors, specialists, inventors, scientists, intellectuals, artists and their families.

There are a number of provisions - the applicants must be prominent and active in their fields, and they can lose citizenship if they breach the conditions.

For the past seven decades, members of the Arab League have generally agreed not to give citizenship to Palestinians - enshrined into law by the 1959 Arab League Decree #1547.

The UAE did allow a number of Palestinians to become citizens by royal decree in its early years after its founding in 1971, but since then it has been nearly impossible to become a citizen of the UAE for anyone.

Will the UAE defy the Arab League and allow Palestinian doctors and scientists to become full citizens? 

Time will tell, but expect some prominent Palestinians to apply for citizenship, as they have whenever a loophole opened in Arab immigration laws that allowed them to become citizens. 

And expect the Palestinian leadership to oppose anything that gives citizenship rights to Palestinians anywhere.

 

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