In this Thursday, April 10, 2014 photo, Palestinian students listen to a lesson in the Faculty of Medicine at the Al-Quds University in the West Bank village of Abu Dis, near Jerusalem. Dozens of Palestinian doctors who graduated from Al-Quds University, a school that has a foothold in east Jerusalem, are caught in the political battle between Israel and the Palestinians over the citys eastern sector. Israel has refused to recognize the universitys graduates -- a move that could amount to acknowledging the Palestinian claims to east Jerusalem as their capital. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)The Associated Press

In this Thursday, April 10, 2014 photo, Palestinian students attend a lesson in the Faculty of Medicine at the Al-Quds University in the West Bank village of Abu Dis, near Jerusalem. Dozens of Palestinian doctors who graduated from Al-Quds University, a school that has a foothold in east Jerusalem, are caught in the political battle between Israel and the Palestinians over the citys eastern sector. Israel has refused to recognize the universitys graduates -- a move that could amount to acknowledging the Palestinian claims to east Jerusalem as their capital. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)The Associated Press

In this Thursday, April 10, 2014 photo, Palestinian students attend a class in the Faculty of Medicine at the Al-Quds University in the West Bank village of Abu Dis, near Jerusalem. Dozens of Palestinian doctors who graduated from Al Quds University, a school that has a foothold in east Jerusalem, are caught in the political battle between Israel and the Palestinians over the citys eastern sector. Israel has refused to recognize the universitys graduates -- a move that could amount to acknowledging the Palestinian claims to east Jerusalem as their capital. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)The Associated Press

In this Thursday, April 10, 2014 photo, Palestinians students sit next to a picture of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the Al-Quds University in the West Bank village of Abu Dis, near Jerusalem. Dozens of Palestinian doctors who graduated from Al-Quds University, a school that has a foothold in east Jerusalem, are caught in the political battle between Israel and the Palestinians over the citys eastern sector. Israel has refused to recognize the universitys graduates -- a move that could amount to acknowledging the Palestinian claims to east Jerusalem as their capital. Arabic on picture reads, "Faculty of Medicine, martyr, leader Yasser Arafat, Al-Quds University." (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)The Associated Press

ABU DIS, West Bank Since graduating from a local medical school nine years ago, Basel Nassar has been barred from serving his community in east Jerusalem, despite a shortage of doctors there.

Like dozens of other Palestinian doctors, Nassar has been caught in the political battle between Israel and the Palestinians over east Jerusalem. Israel captured and annexed the traditionally Arab sector in 1967, a step not recognized by most of the world, while the Palestinians seek it as a capital.

Palestinians long have held that Israel's attempt to impose its sovereignty over east Jerusalem the emotional core of the Mideast conflict and home to major religious shrines has violated basic rights and disrupted the lives of many of the city's Arab residents. Yet Israel's policy of banning dozens of Jerusalem residents from working in the city as doctors increasingly is being criticized by Israelis, including leading physicians who say politics must not trump the right to health care.

Earlier this month, an Israeli court overturned the Health Ministry's ban after Nassar and others sued, ostensibly clearing the way for him and 54 other doctors who are graduates of the Palestinians' Al-Quds University to apply for Israeli medical licenses. But it's not clear if the government has dropped the legal battle.

Critics say the issue is rooted in politics, not medical standards. Many of the doctors have passed medical examination tests elsewhere, including the U.S. and western Europe. But since all graduated from Al-Quds, a university with a foothold in east Jerusalem, Israeli recognition of their degrees could be seen as acknowledgment of Palestinian claims to the eastern sector of the city.

The Health Ministry applied a similar ruling several years ago to a small group of graduates on a one-time basis. It hasn't ruled out appealing the latest court decision.

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Palestinian doctors were caught in battle over Jerusalem; court says Israel must admit them