No bank account or work permit: Thousands of Palestinians living in Israel are in limbo

One simple test stands between Wafa Aliyan, who's from an Arab Israeli village west of Jerusalem, and her dream of pursuing graduate law studies at Hebrew University: the YAEL Hebrew fluency test.

It took place in July, but Aliyan couldn't register because she has no ID card and wasn't allowed to register with her father's, as she did when she enrolled for undergraduate studies at Bethlehem University in the West Bank.

Aliyan was born in Jerusalem to an Arab Israeli father and a Palestinian mother from the West Bank but isn't recognized as an Israeli citizen. In fact, she's not a citizen or resident of any country in the world.

"I can't live," she says. "I can't attend an Israeli university because I have no ID. I get stopped at checkpoints – especially if I'm wearing a hijab. I can't go to a health clinic, and during the pandemic, I couldn't be vaccinated until the Health Ministry agreed for me to go to a clinic for foreigners."