Israel Seized Land from Palestinian Citizens – Again

JVL Introduction

We see too many cases of Israeli court-sanctioned injustice to post them on our blog but this case of seized land is stands out for its double standards.

The Absentee Property Law has been the device for the Israeli state to seize the homes and land of Arabs who fled in 1948 and attempted to return home after the fighting stopped. This case is unusual as the Law has been applied to steal land which the owners has never left; the borders moved during the fighting but the families did not.

The Supreme Court was inventive in its reasons for sanctioning the theft. It claimed that the case could only be brought by the families of the original owners, not by subsequent purchasers – although this is not part of any law passed by the Knesset. It also contrasts with the privileged treatment given to the militant Nahalat Shimon settler company that has been allowed to demand ownership of homes in Shaikh Jarrah in their own name and not that of the original owners.

The Palestinian owners had undisputed possession of the land for almost 70 years until 2017 but this was no barrier to the sudden demand to seize the land.

The Palestinians’ case rested in part on the exact location of the moving borders but access to the 75 year old maps that would have elucidated that was denied on the basis that it “could undermine the state’s foreign relations”.

Those who contest the designation of Israel as an Apartheid state maintain that Palestinian citizens of Israel enjoy equal protection under the law – this is yet another example of the falsity of that claim.

This article was originally published by Haaretz on Tue 15 Mar 2022. Read the original here.