That process, they say, has only accelerated in the wake of US President Donald Trump's decision a year ago to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem, effectively endorsing the city as Israel's exclusive capital.

"Israel wants Palestinians in Jerusalem to understand that they are trapped, that they are being strangled, in the hope they will conclude that life is better outside the city," said Amneh Badran, a politics professor at Jerusalem's Al Quds university.

Since Israel seized the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967 and then illegally annexed it in 1981, it has intentionally left the status of its Palestinian population unresolved.

Israeli officials have made Palestinians there "permanent residents," though, in practice, their residency is easily revoked. According to Israel's own figures, more than 14,500 Palestinians have been expelled from the city of their birth since 1967, often compelling their families to join them in exile.