Supreme Court 'suggests' invalidating absentee property law used to confiscate land in 'east' Jerusalem
The Supreme Court has 'suggested'
invalidating a 1950 law that allows the government to seize property in 'east' Jerusalem that has been abandoned by its former owners. The good news is that the court does not want to throw out the thousands of Israeli Jews who live on such properties, finally recognizing the reality that you can't expel people on that kind of scale.
The High Court of Justice issued a recommendation on Tuesday to the state, and
to lawyers fighting to undo state confiscations of east Jerusalem land, that the
court declare the use of a 1950 law to justify further confiscations
unconstitutional.
While some of the petitioners, such as top lawyer
Avigdor Feldman, were ready to embrace the recommendation as a long-delayed
righting of what they considered decades of injustice, other petitioners, like
NGO Adalah’s director Hassan Jabareen and lawyer Souhad Bishara, were dismayed,
viewing the suggestion as permanently anchoring in law nearly 50 years of unjust
confiscations.
...
The
court, presided over by Supreme Court President Asher D. Grunis, asked all of
the parties to provide legal opinions on its suggestion to declare the law’s
application in east Jerusalem unconstitutional, and to give their own ideas on
whether the declaration should take effect only now, or retroactively from a
different date.
Only two weeks ago, Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein had
announced a major policy reversal in which the government would stop using the
1950 Absentee Property Law to confiscate east Jerusalem properties from Arabs
for the benefit of Jews and the state.
The announcement had been designed
to avoid this exact eventuality of throwing out the law’s application entirely,
but may not have succeeded.
That state announcement followed a May High
Court decision demanding it explain its position in using the 1950 law to
confiscate land in east Jerusalem following the 1967 Six Day
War.
...
After the War of Independence, the law was used to
take over homes and lands that Arabs had left empty or abandoned during or
following the fighting.
The current controversy concerns to what extent
the state can do the same in east Jerusalem, with all of the legal, political
and international issues involved.
Reportedly the state has had
inconsistent policies on using the law over the years, sometimes invoking it and
sometimes not.
It's like they never heard of
eminent domain....
Labels: Arab land grabs, Arab land sales to Jews, East Jerusalem, eminent domain, Supreme Court
'Palestinians' registering title to land in Judea and Samaria
'Palestinians' are able to
buy land in Judea and Samaria on line and to get tabu (title) for it, according to a report in al-Guardian.
Khaled Sabawi, the Canadian-born son of Palestinian refugees, launched
Tabo three years ago. Appropriating the Ottoman term for "title deed",
the business was built upon a dream of his father's to help Palestinians
buy Palestinian land. It is a dream that most of the estimated 5
million scattered Palestinian refugees would consider impossible.
...
Sabawi and other critics of the Palestinian Authority would add that
Israel's ongoing success in the struggle for territory is aided by the
Palestinian leadership's failure to protect Palestinian land. Legal
proof of ownership is almost impossible to come by in the West Bank,
where 70% of land is unregistered and ancestral property is inherited by
dozens of heirs.
Israeli settlements have thrived on this legal
ambiguity. "The best way to protect Palestinian land is to create title
deeds and we have created hundreds of parcels of title deed land that
are now owned by Palestinians. But it was a laborious, arduous,
exhausting process throughout which the bureaucracy of the Palestinian
Authority – not Israel – has been the greatest obstacle," Sabawi said.
It
took Tabo's team of lawyers and engineers four years to register 100
hectares (250 acres) of Palestinian land. In each case, the process
started from scratch. It involved negotiating with multiple heirs
claiming ownership of a plot of land, agreeing on the borders of that
plot, getting an official map of the land approved by the council and
then applying for a title deed to legalise ownership.
The Tabo website
invites prospective buyers in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the
far-flung diaspora on a virtual tour of every plot of registered land
with a 180-degree view from the site, its height from sea level and
slope gradient. Plots are sold for $13,000 (£8,600) to $80,000 and can
be paid off over three years.
...
In Farkha, where 90 plots of land have been sold through Tabo, the
council is cautiously supportive of the initiative. Tabo has paved roads
and extended water and electricity networks to reach their plots of
land. "The newcomers will probably help our economy and it's better that
the land is not in the hands of settlers. But Sabawi is not buying our
land because he likes our blue eyes. He's got a good business going,"
said Hassan Abdullah Hajaj, a council leader for 16 years. Most
villagers, he said, sold land to Tabo for $5,000 per 1,000 sq metres or
less out of economic necessity.
Unlike Hajaj or Sabawi, the
Dabbaghs still cherish an optimistic ideal of Palestine. Ali is an eye
surgeon specialising in diabetes and plans to open a clinic in Farkha.
The couple have hired an architect to design their home, even though
they have yet to receive permission from the Israeli authorities to live
in the West Bank. When Ali last flew to Tel Aviv, he was refused entry,
despite a British passport.
"At least 10 of our friends and
relatives have bought land through Tabo after we told them about it.
Some don't even plan to live there – they feel they are protecting the
land just by owning it," Sana explained. Ali added: "For me it was just
something I took for granted. I knew I was going to end up in Palestine.
If, God forbid, I don't get to, at least now I know my children can."
In other words, a 'Palestinian businessman' living abroad is taking advantage of local 'Palestinians' by buying their land on the cheap and selling it to wealthy 'Palestinians' who also live abroad. Imagine the outcry if the 'settlers' did something like that. But as long as all they're doing is recycling land on which 'Palestinians' already live, I'm not sure it matters.
I went to the tabo site (linked above) and started to fill out the form until I saw that I would have to fill in a credit card number, and give two references in 'Palestine.' I guess that's how they keep the Jooz out.
Anyone have a credit card number you don't mind giving 'Palestinians'?
Labels: Arab land grabs, Judea and Samaria, Palestine
Yet another anti-Israel double standard
Here's something I never knew before.
You will recall that last month, in response to a Supreme Court order, the residents of Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood were 'voluntarily'
expelled from their homes because the homes were built on 'private Palestinian land.'
I always knew there was private Jewish land in Judea and Samaria (and Gaza, for that matter) that had been purchased by Jews before 1948. What I did not know is that Kings Abdullah (the grandfather - not the current one) and Hussein of Jordan built some of the largest 'Palestinian refugee camps' on privately owned
Jewish land - specifically on land owned by the Jewish Agency.
Specifically, the Dehaishe 'refugee camp' outside Bethlehem and the El Aroub 'refugee camp' (from which Jews are
regularly stoned) between Gush Etzion and Hebron, were both built on land owned by the Jewish Agency. What's worse, Israel cannot even build 'bypass roads' around El Aroub because it cannot take the necessary 'Palestinian fields' to build those roads by eminent domain and the 'Palestinians' won't sell them.
So why doesn't the Jewish Agency go into court and demand the expulsion of the 'refugee camps' like the 'Palestinian landowners' in Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood did? Because we're a bunch of wimps.
Labels: Arab land grabs, Arab land sales to Jews, Judea and Samaria
Arabs taking a page out of the Jews' book
In the pre-state era, Jews paid massive amounts of money - and overpaid - to buy land from Arabs and reclaim it as Jewish land. Is the process now being reversed?
On Sunday, I received the following email from
Russel H:
This shabbos I heard a story that Arabs have been trying to buy homes in Tzfat, sometimes offering up to four times their value. The money, apparently is Saudi. Do you know anything about this?
I didn't. But I put the question to
Joel B, who runs
this website. Here's his response:
I don't know specific prices but I do know that Tsfat is one of many, many, cities on the 'hit' list. This is a national issue. Everywhere in the country they are either buying or trying to buy. In the predominantly Arab areas they build illegally non stop.
Hey folks - is anyone there? Wake up!
Labels: Arab land grabs, Tzfat
Hussein's palace to be renovated by Jordan? UPDATE: Work halted
On Wednesday, I reported on an apparent
land grab by the Wakf at Hussein's palace in Beit Hanina here in Jerusalem. Now, Maan reports that it's the Kingdom of Jordan which is behind the land grab. The King has apparently decided to
complete his father's palace.
Jordan is renovating King Hussein's unfinished palace in Jerusalem, Hebrew-language media reported Sunday.
The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs is carrying out the work at Jordan's request, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported.
Maariv said the Jerusalem Municipality was not informed of the plans for the building, which is located in occupied East Jerusalem.
...
According to Maariv, the deserted building is used by prostitutes and drug users.
So is the Jerusalem municipality (or the government of Israel) going to insist that they go through ordinary approval processes? Or is the government going to de facto give up its sovereignty over 'east' Jerusalem? What could go wrong?
UPDATE 6:59 PM
Israeli authorities have
halted work on the site (Hat Tip:
Shy Guy).
Illegal renovations of King Hussein’s partially built summer villa, whose concrete shell was abandoned following the 1967 Six Day War, were halted Sunday after workers began building a fence around the building last week.
The site, located north of Jerusalem and believed to be the site of King Saul’s ancient palace and the capital of the tribe of Benjamin, is an archeological park that belongs to the Israel Lands Authority. Like other politically sensitive sites, no work has been done on the site since 1967, to honor the delicate status quo.
Chaim Silberstein, the CEO and founder of Keep Jerusalem, notified the police and the Jerusalem municipality when he saw tractors and workers pouring cement at the site on Thursday. Silberstein regularly brings groups to the site for an educational tour of the Jerusalem boundaries.
“I went up to the manager, and I asked him what they were doing, and he said, ‘I work for the Waqf, this is our property, it’s too dangerous and we’re fencing it in,’” Silberstein told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
...
Any renovation work on the building would require a permit from the municipality. The municipality told the media they had not issued any permits for the building.
“This is the site of the ancient Givat Shaul, it’s the second most important archeological site in Jerusalem after the City of David [near the Old City],” said Silberstein. “They are trying to remove Jewish connections and exert Palestinian sovereignty in east Jerusalem, and that’s not something we want,” he said.
Repeated attempts to contact the Waqf were unsuccessful.
According to Silberstein, who notified a bevy of right-wing activists and Knesset members of the illegal renovations, the renovation work was halted at the end of last week. Silberstein said in the future, he wanted to see the area renovated for tourists and archeologists.
This should be fun.... 'International incident' coming in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1....
Labels: Arab land grabs, Hussein's palace, Jordan, Jordanian King Abdullah, Wakf
A land grab at Hussein's palace
In 1972, when I made my first trip to Israel, the tour guide proudly took us to Hussein's palace. Hussein's palace, pictured at top left, was being constructed by Jordan's King Hussein when he foolishly entered the Six-Day War in 1967. It was never finished.
The unfinished palace sits on a high hilltop with a commanding view of the city. It can be seen from many parts of northeastern Jerusalem.
Over the years, it has become a bit less popular as a tourist attraction because going to an Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem (in this case Beit Hanina) is... a bit dicey....
Today, I received the following in an email from
Avi F:
hello i volunteer for an organization here in jerusalem called keep jerusalem ie. Im eskachech. we were touring some people today around jerusalem when we discovered that some people were fencing off Hussein's palace. when asked if they had a permit, they said it was paid and ordered by the wakf. we are currently trying to get on the issue with knesset members and the city police but if you could spread the word to anyone who might be able to stop this blatant illegal arab land grab it would be greatly appreciated.
Below are a couple more recent pictures that Avi F. sent to me.
Labels: Arab land grabs, Hussein's palace, Wakf
