Gov't decision strips Palestinians of their East J'lem property

[Scurrilous]

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/529510.html

<snip>


"The Sharon government implemented the Absentee Property Law in East Jerusalem last July, contrary to Israeli government policy since Israeli law was extended to East Jerusalem after the Six Day War.

The law means that thousands of Palestinians who live in the West Bank will lose ownership of their property in East Jerusalem.
Government officials estimate the assets total thousands of dunam, while other estimates say they could add up to half of all East Jerusalem property."

<snip>

"The Absentee Property Law of 1950 stipulates, among other things, that an absentee is someone who at the time of the War of Independence "was in any part of the land of Israel that is outside the area of Israel" - that is, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
According to the law, absentee assets are transfered to the authority of the Custodian for Absentee Property, without the absentee being eligible for any compensation. When East Jerusalem came under Israeli law, then-attorney general Meir Shamgar directed that the law not be applied to West Bank residents who have property in the parts of East Jerusalem that became part of the State of Israel. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin reissued that directive in 1993.

With the recent construction of the fence in the Jerusalem region, Palestinian landholders from Bethlehem and Beit Jala requested permission to continue working their fields, which are within Jerusalem's municipal jurisdiction. The state's response stated that the lands "no longer belong to them, but have been handed over to the Custodian for Absentee Property." At stake are thousands of dunam of agricultural land on which the Palestinians grew olives and grapes throughout the years."


Land grab? What land grab?

[King Mongo]

1. Absentee Property Law

Land grabbing combined with racial cleansing. This is pure evil stuff, total racism.

Yet, evil is mostly eventually replaced with good. Eventually, Isrealis will have to compensate Palestinians for the property that it took from them.

[Paleocon]

7. What if the Israelis do compensate the Palestinians for the stolen lands..

and then the Palestinian government (if there ever is one) holds the money and doesn't distribute it to those who should be receiving it?


That would be weird wouldn't it?

It would be really weird if all these religous whacko nut job coo coo heads cut the shit and learned to live in peace beside each other too. Wouldn't that be weird???

Lot of weird stuff I... Weird....

[King Mongo]

8. Agreed.

Agreed. Given that individuals are not guilty for the crimes of others, Israel would not be held responsible for the crimes performed by the Palestinian government. In my opinion, it's best for Israel to be good and fair so that the blame and criticism can be focused on the Palestinians side, if necessary.

[The Magistrate]

9. What A Pleasure, Your Grace

Your Grace has given the essence of my advice to both sides in this matter: be on your best behavior if you wish your foe to be seen in the wrong.

[King Mongo]

11. secret to success

If either side would listen to me, then I would tell them that secret to victory. :)

[sabbat hunter]

12. will the

Arab countries do likewise and compensate the jews property they stole/confiscated?


david

[number6]

2. what it looks like ....

Land grabbing combined with racial(religous) cleansing .....

[The Magistrate]

3. This, Mr. Scurrilious, Is Very Wrong

The "absentee" law when originally formulated was a borderline business at best, and its application was often pernicious. There is no excuse whatever for applying it today, a half century later, in wholly different circumstances.

Nor does there seem to me to be any real legal foundation for its application. Certainly the persons it is being applied to were, or are the heirs of people who were, outside the "area of Israel" during the '48 war, but so was the land in question outside the "area of Israel" at that time. There is, to put it mildly, some question whether that land is legally in the "area of Israel" even today. Israeli annexation of the whole of Jerusalem and its environs is not recognized internationally, is contrary to United Nations directives, and would probably be ruled contrary to international law if a case were pressed in an international tribunal. It is possible that a comprehensive and negotiated peace might regularize that annexationation, or most of it, anyway, but there has been no such treaty negotiated and signed. The excuse offered by "a senior judicial official" that this is the result of "terrorism" is beneath contempt: the security may well be a response to arracks against Israel,and justifiable on such grounds, but that has nothing whatever to do with the choice to apply this law.

[Lithos]

4. Very well put

It's just plain wrong.

L-

[Scurrilous]

5. Excellent point Magistrate...

...since the land in question lay outside Israel's borders in '48 I don't see how the absentee law is applicable in this case.

[tinnypriv]

6. It is worth remembering that this is not an isolated incident

Last July the Sharon government also did this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x76068

Again, that was in secret until exposed in Israel as well. Looks like that month was quite a land grab.

[The Magistrate]

10. That Is True, Mr.Priv

It has long been clear the security barrier will function as a de facto annexation of a good deal of land. There are persons who afvance in good faith the argument it is only a temporary measure, that can be rolled back at any time, but experoience teaches that in this matter, the temporary has a way of lasting to permanence....

[IndianaGreen]

13. So Israel is doing the same thing the Catholic King and Queen of Spain

So Israel is doing the same thing the Catholic King and Queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella of Columbus trip to America fame, did to the Jews of Spain, steal property without compensation. Amazing how a historically persecuted people have adopted the tactics of their persecutors!

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Could this official possibly have kept a straight face when saying this?

"These people's property was always considered absentee assets, but so long as no fence existed, these people could get to their property and everything was fine from their standpoint," said a senior judicial official involved in the case. "The fence is the result of terrorism. It's not fair that a man becomes an absentee because his tie to his land has been cut without his doing. But morality is one thing, and what is written in our laws another."

So the Palestinians were farming the land, but they were absentees? Did they have remote-controlled farming machines?

And then he summarises the whole sorry mess that is the Israeli occupation: But morality is one thing, and what is written in our laws another.

[Scurrilous]

15. AG reverses gov't decision to seize East J'lem land

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/534764.html

<snip>

"Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decided Monday to overturn a government decision entitling the state to confiscate all East Jerusalem property owned by thousands of West Bank residents, without paying compensation.

The Ministerial Committee on Jerusalem decided in June to apply the Absentee Property Law to East Jerusalem property owned by Palestinians living in the West Bank, thus reversing the policy of all Israel's governments since the 1967 Six Day War.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is responsible for the law's enactment, Mazuz said it was not within the ministerial committee's power to interpret the extent of the authority of the absentee property custodian.

In his letter, Mazuz added that applying the committee's decision "could also have grave diplomatic repercussions on the separation fence, which has drawn strong criticism from the International Court of Justice at The Hague."
"This is an issue where clearly Israel's interest would be to avoid opening new fronts in the world and in international law," Mazuz wrote."