Tightening the screws on (East) Jerusalem:
Israel is said to back bill to seize property
By Greg Myre The New York Times
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
JERUSALEM The Israeli government secretly approved a measure last summer that says the state may seize land in east Jerusalem that is owned by Palestinians who live elsewhere, an attorney for the Palestinians said Monday.
Many of the Palestinian landowners live in neighboring Bethlehem and historically have had access to property that is inside the Jerusalem boundaries that Israel unilaterally established after capturing the eastern part of Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war.
However, many Palestinians have not been able to reach their property in the past two years due to Israel's West Bank separation barrier, which has gone up between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
But until recently, the Palestinians still believed they owned the property, most of it olive groves and grape orchards that have been in the families for generations.
"This is state theft, pure and simple," said Hanna Nasser, the mayor of Bethlehem.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government approved a measure in July stating that Israel may confiscate property in east Jerusalem if it belongs to Palestinians who live outside the city.
The move was taken as part of the Absentee Property Law, which has been on the books since 1950. Israel has invoked the law to seize thousands of homes and parcels of land that belonged to Palestinians who fled or were driven out during the 1948 war surrounding the founding of Israel.
The Israeli government did not announce the move when it was taken, but has acknowledged the new policy following a report last week in Israel's Haaretz newspaper.
"All the government decisions on this issue are made secretly. It is treated like a security issue, not a property issue," said Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer representing many of the Palestinian landowners.
He estimated that the decision could apply to hundreds of Palestinian landowners with thousands of acres of land in southeastern or southern Jerusalem. Seidemann said he intends to file suit in Israel's High Court of Justice against the Israeli government unless it rescinds its decision.
Jerusalem's fate is one of the most complex and incendiary issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the latest development is certain to add to the friction.
Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, though its annexation of east Jerusalem in 1967, shortly after the war, has never been recognized internationally. The Palestinians seek the eastern sector for the capital of a future state.
In many cases, the Palestinian landowners in the Bethlehem area live only a short distance from their Jerusalem property, and in some cases are right next to it.
Johnny Atik, a Bethlehem resident, lives in a house next to his eight acres of olive groves. However, his house is in Bethlehem, while the olives groves are in land that is part of Jerusalem, according to Israel.
The Israeli separation barrier runs through Atik's backyard, separating him from his olive trees.
Over the past two years, Atik and other landowners have repeatedly requested permission from the Israeli military to tend to their land, but never received it.
In November, the military sent a letter telling Atik that his olive groves now belonged to the Custodian of Absentee Properties in Israel, according to Seidemann.
The absentee property law does not require Israel to pay compensation for land the state confiscates.
The Israeli government refused to comment, but the prime minister's office issued a brief statement Monday citing the action taken by the government's Ministerial Committee for Jerusalem Affairs.
The resolution said the Custodian of Absentee Property has the authority to sell, transfer or lease the property in east Jerusalem based on the Absentee Property Law of 1950.
In a related development, Israeli bulldozers resumed construction on one of the most controversial sections of the separation barrier, around the West Bank settlement of Ariel.
Ariel is one of the larger settlements, with close to 20,000 Jewish settlers, and is deep inside the West Bank. Work on the barrier was halted last year when Palestinians appealed to the Israeli courts. However, work resumed on Monday, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Palestinian security officials.
Israel has said that it will build individual fences around Ariel and several other nearby settlements, and will decide later whether to connect them to the main barrier.
The Palestinians say that Israel is free to build a barrier along its 1967 borders, but adamantly oppose its presence in the occupied West Bank, which the Palestinians want for a future state.
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