Racist PA law against Arabs selling land: Real apartheid in the area is Palestinian Authority

Submitted by Sammy S (United States), Oct 21, 2021 at 19:27

Our World: Why is Muhammad Abu al-Hawa dead?

By Caroline Glick , APRIL 18, 2006

By murdering him the Palestinian leadership sends a message against peaceful coexistence.

Muhammad Abu al-Hawa was a 42-year-old father of eight when he died last Wednesday night.

As Israeli Jews were beginning our Pessah Seders and retelling the story of our exodus from Egypt and our rebirth as a free nation, Abu al-Hawa was being tortured by Fatah terrorists.
As we ate our Seder meal, he was shot seven times. As we called out "Next year in Jerusalem," Abu al-Hawa's body and car were torched.

Abu al-Hawa was tortured and murdered because he stood accused of committing what the Palestinians consider a capital crime.

Eight young children were orphaned last Wednesday night because their father allegedly sold an apartment building in Israel's capital city to Jews.

The building in question is located in Jerusalem's A-Tur neighborhood, just above the Temple Mount on the Mount of Olives.

Muhammad Abu al-Hawa was buried in a makeshift cemetery on the road between Jerusalem where he lived, and Jericho where he was murdered.
His body was buried there because the Palestinian Authority's mufti in Jerusalem, Ikremah Sabri, has barred all Muslims accused of selling land to Jews from being buried in a Muslim cemetery.

When the PA was established in 1994, the first legal step its chairman Yasser Arafat and its justice minister Freih Abu Medein took was to declare null and void all laws that had been in force until that date. After plunging Palestinian society into legal chaos, Arafat and Medein reinstated one law.

That law was a Jordanian law which Israel had revoked in 1967. It made selling land to Jews a capital offense. SINCE 1994, dozens of Arab Israelis and PA residents have been murdered on suspicion of selling land to Jews. Abu al-Hawa's murder - like those that preceded it - tells us several important things about Palestinian society.

It tells us that like the PA today, any successor Palestinian state will be a racist, apartheid state where laws will be promulgated based solely on race and religious origin. Jews will be denied all basic human rights and Arabs who peacefully coexist with Jews will be accused of treason and made targets for murder.

On Saturday night Sheikh Raed Salah, the former mayor of Umm el-Fahm and the head of the northern branch of the Israeli Islamic Movement, spoke to an audience of some 30,000 Israeli Arabs in Kafr Kana. There he placed Abu al-Hawa's murder in the context of the Arab-Islamic strategy for conquering Jerusalem. His address, which was broadcast live by al-Jazeera, was devoted to calling for the expulsion of all Jews from Jerusalem. He called on his Arab brethren to "save Jerusalem from the hands of the Jews," promising that "Jerusalem will soon be the capital of the world Islamic nation, and it will be governed by a caliphate." Salah's speech placed him in the company of Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the Qatar-based Sunni cleric who acts as a religious authority for both Hamas and al-Qaida. Speaking in Sanaa, Yemen, last December, Qaradawi, who chairs the Al-Quds Foundation, referred to the goal of Islamizing Jerusalem by ending coexistence with Israel as "a civilian jihad that should go side by side with armed resistance."

Today, there is no figure of authority in the Arab and Islamic world in general and in the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority particularly who would have stood up for Abu al-Hawa. For today's Arab and Islamic leaders, murders like Abu al-Hawa's serve an "educational" goal of terrorizing Palestinians into ending any ongoing relationships they may have with Israelis. Neither Abu al-Hawa nor countless other victims before him had an opportunity to answer the charges leveled against them.

According to Palestinians and to Jews involved in purchasing lands from Palestinians, in the majority of cases, the Arabs murdered for the "crime" of selling land to Jews never sold land to Jews. At most they were "guilty" of having ties of friendship or commerce with Israelis. The fact that merely having relations with Jews can expose an Arab to allegations of collaboration is enough to convince most Palestinians that they shouldn't have anything to do with Israel or Israelis. So by murdering people like Abu al-Hawa, the Palestinian leadership ensures that Palestinians will be too afraid of being killed to risk peaceful coexistence with Israel.

YET WHILE once marked as a land seller Abu al-Hawa could expect no protection from the Palestinian leadership, as a resident of Jerusalem he had a legal right to expect Israeli authorities to protect him. Indeed, it was the responsibility of the Israel Police to protect him. Disturbingly, not only did the police not protect him, they may well have made it impossible for him to escape death. Last month the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ordered the police to evict squatters from the building formerly owned by Abu al-Hawa who had moved in during the previous weeks. Sources intimately involved with the story allege that rather than carry out the eviction order as quietly as possible in order to minimize local Arab attention to what was already shaping up to be a difficult and dangerous situation for Abu al-Hawa, the police leaked the court-ordered operation to Israel's TV Channel 10.

Last Sunday and Monday nights, Channel 10 led its primetime news broadcasts with footage from the police operation at A-Tur. The footage showed riot police ejecting the squatters and their personal effects from the apartment building. Reporter Assaf Zohar portrayed the Arab squatters as innocent victims and the Jews who bought the building legally, guarded the building legally and moved into the building legally as arrogant bullies and greedy, wealthy fanatics.
Abu al-Hawa described Jews approaching him with a suitcase filled with cash offering to buy his apartment. He vociferously claimed that he refused their pushy offers because he would never sell to Jews.
Zohar made no mention of the fact that the PA conducts extrajudicial murders of those accused of selling land to Jews.

IT WAS hard to imagine Al-Jazeera portraying Jews in a worse light than Israel's Channel 10. The fact that the building in question is located in Israel's capital city across the street from the Temple Mount apparently made absolutely no impression on Zohar. After the Channel 10 "expose," the level of incitement against Abu al-Hawa went up several decibels in A-Tur and in the PA. Sources in the neighborhood argue that if he had been harassed by the PA before the Channel 10 broadcast, Abu al-Hawa's life was immediately imperiled in the broadcast's aftermath.

The fact that the police allowed and allegedly facilitated Channel 10's coverage of the evictions together with the decidedly anti-Israel slant of the Channel 10 story says two very disturbing things about the state of Israel's elites today. In the case of the police, it says that the one body responsible for safeguarding Abu al-Hawa's life operated in contradiction to its basic mission. If the police had wished, they could have made it clear to neighborhood residents and PA interlopers that it was in their best interests to leave Abu al-Hawa and his family alone. Yet rather than do so, they apparently facilitated the Channel 10 coverage which made killing Abu al-Hawa a matter of honor for his murderers eager to prove their mettle as defenders of Palestinian pride and Islamic solidarity against the Jews.

For its part, Channel 10's unsettlingly biased story was noteworthy not merely because it made Abu al-Hawa an irresistible target. It was noteworthy for what it said about how Israel's elites view official Palestinian anti-Semitism.

By leading their primetime news broadcast night after night with a sevenminute segment that portrayed Jews moving into a building in Jerusalem as wealthy, exploitative trespassers, Channel 10 showed that its editors, producers and reporters accept the anti-Semitic basis of Palestinian claims against Israel.

That is, these representatives of the Israeli elite classes believe that the goal of establishing a Palestinian state justifies nullifying the right of Jews to own land in areas that the Palestinians claim are theirs. There is little doubt that the combined capabilities of the police, the IDF and the Shin Bet could easily render it all but impossible for Palestinians to carry out their "law" dictating the murder of those who sell land to Jews.

They could also make it clear to the Palestinians and the Israeli Arab leadership that they have no choice other than to abide by Israeli law in Israel's capital.

That is, Israel has the physical and intelligence capacity to win this war for the maintenance of survival of the Jewish state against its domestic foes rather handily. Unfortunately, for Israel to win this war, it first needs to accept that it has a right to fight it.

And when our elites adopt the racist Palestinian narrative of the war and present it to the Israeli public as an objective truth, accepting that Israel has a right to fight this war becomes a Herculean effort. Abu al-Hawa's torture and murder is the result not only of the barbarism that reigns supreme in Palestinian society. It is also result of the fact that supporters of that barbarism reign supreme in Israeli society.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/columnists/our-world-why-is-muhammad-abu-al-hawa-dead

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Jordan, PA Arrest 2 Palestinians for Selling Hebron House to Jews

Hebron Jewish Committee: Arrest proves house was purchased legally, exposes anti-Semitic nature of PA.

Avi Issacharoff, Nadav Shragai

Mar. 30, 2007

Hebron's Jewish Committee condemned the arrest, saying, "The arrest exposes once again the anti-Semitic nature of the PA. We call upon the government to accept the racial hatred prevalent in the PA."
https://www.haaretz.com/1.4813782

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PA court: Death to man who sold land to Jews

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH , APRIL 29, 2009

Abbas nazi 248.88
(photo credit: AP)

First of kind death sentence by PA's chief Islamic judge to deter real-estate deals with 'the enemy.'

In the first case of its kind, a Palestinian Authority "military court" on Tuesday sentenced a Palestinian man to death by hanging after finding him guilty of selling land to Jews. The verdict came shortly after the PA's chief Islamic judge, Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, issued yet another fatwa (religious decree) banning Muslims from selling land or houses to Jews.

The death sentence is seen as an attempt by the PA leadership in Ramallah to deter Palestinians from conducting real estate transactions with Jews. It follows reports according to which Jewish individuals and organizations recently bought land and houses from Arabs in Jerusalem and some areas in the West Bank.

The man sentenced to death is Anwar Brigith, 59, from the village of Bet Umar, north of Hebron. The three-judge panel found the defendant guilty of violating PA laws that bar Palestinians from selling property to "the enemy." In its ruling, the court, which convened in Hebron, said that Brigith had acted in violation of a Palestinian "military law" dating back to 1979, which states that it is forbidden for a Palestinian to sell land to Jews. The accused was also found guilty of violating a law dating back to 1958 that calls for a boycott against Israel, as well as another law from 1953 that bans trade with Israelis. The judges issued the verdict unanimously and pointed out that the defendant did not have the right to appeal.

The death sentence, however, must be approved by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. The court was headed by Gen. Abdel Karim al-Masri, who sat together with two other PA security officers, Muhrez Atyani and Nabil Jaber. The court also decided to confiscate Brigith's money and property. Although the PA has never executed Palestinians accused of selling land to Jews, several "suspects" have been kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian security personnel or members of armed groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hatem Abdel Kader, a PA legislator from Jerusalem, told The Jerusalem Post that he fully supported the death sentence against "traitors" involved in real estate deals with Jews. He urged the PA courts to issue death sentences in absentia against any Palestinian found guilty of such transactions, especially in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. "We are fighting against Jewish presence and house demolitions in [east] Jerusalem from one house to another," he said. "We are fighting on all levels and thus far we have been successful in preventing the demolition of some 28 houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
In the Old City, the number of Jews is about 3,000, as opposed to more than 30,000 Arab residents. Although the occupation is 43 years old, the Jews have been able to seize only 55 houses in the Old City."
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/pa-court-death-to-man-who-sold-land-to-jews

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PA affirms death penalty for land sales to Israelis

The PA says the land law is necessary to prevent the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH , SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday reaffirmed the death penalty for any Palestinian found guilty of selling land to Israelis.

The decision came in response to a ruling by a Palestinian court according to which such acts were only a "minor offense."

PA Prosecutor-General Ahmed al-Mughni appealed against the ruling to a higher court, arguing that the sale of land to Israelis was a "major offense" punishable by death.

The appeal was accepted.

That verdict considering such offenses a major offense is aimed at reminding Palestinians of the PA law that prohibits selling land to Jews, Mughni said.

The land law, which was originally put in force by Jordan between 1948 and 1967, carries the death sentence.

The PA says the law is necessary to prevent the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

In 1997, the PA announced that it would seek the death penalty for any Palestinian convicted of selling land to Jews or Israelis, in accordance with the Jordanian "Law for Preventing the Sale of Real Estate to the Enemy."

According to the 1973 legislation, the sale of property to Jews or Israelis constitutes a crime against state security and well-being, punishable by death and the confiscation of the culprit's possessions.

The PA later drafted its own law to replace the Jordanian statute. The law is called the "Property Law for Foreigners."

It describes the sale of land to "occupiers" as an act of "national treason." Although the PA has thus far refrained from executing those convicted of selling land to Jews, there have been many extrajudicial killings of Palestinian suspects over the past decades.
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/PA-affirms-death-penalty-for-land-sales-to-Israelis

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Abbas toughens law against Palestinians selling land to Jews

Oct 21, 2014 —

Following East Jerusalem acquisitions, PA ups penalty to hard labor for life; Fatah spokesman calls land solicitors 'traitors destined to die a humiliating death'

By ELHANAN MILLER 21 October 2014
https://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-toughens-law-against-palestinians-selling-land-to-jews/

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Palestinian man convicted of selling land to Israeli Jews dies in PA custody —

PA police say man died of an unspecified illness after two-week hospitalization; deceased had been held since 2012

By ADAM RASGON , 22 December 2019.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-man-convicted-of-selling-land-to-israeli-jews-dies-in-pa-custody/

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Palestinian-American Tortured, Sentenced to Life in Prison by PA for Selling Land to Jews

DAVID RUTZ JAN 2, 2019 11:02 AM

A Palestinian-American was tortured by the Palestinian Authority and then sentenced to life in prison with hard labor this week for the crime of selling land to Jews.

Issam Akel, an East Jerusalem resident and U.S. citizen, was sentenced Monday by a Palestinian court for "attempting to cut off a part of the Palestinian land and adding them to a foreign country," the Jerusalem Post reports. The official news agency of the PA referred to his crime as "selling a house to the enemy in Jerusalem":

Akel was accused of acting as a broker in the sale of a house jointly owned by the Alami and Halabi families in the Muslim Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. Palestinians claimed that the house was sold for $500,000 to Ateret Kohanim, a Jewish organization that has been purchasing Arab-owned properties in east Jerusalem for several years.The PA, the Palestinians said, has frozen the bank accounts of Akel and the two families.

Israel's police are investigating the circumstances of Akel's arrest by the PA. There are conflicting reports over whether he was was arrested by Palestinian authorities while in Ramallah or was seized from East Jerusalem. The Post notes he holds an Israeli ID and is immune to prosecution in a PA court.

Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll, writing in the progressive Jewish publication Forward, said she heard from people in touch with Akel that he was lured to Ramallah under false pretenses and then tortured. His wife and an American official who spoke with him while he was imprisoned also said he was tortured.

A man Keats-Jaskoll called "Ali" testified before the Knesset about his experience with torture at the hands of the Palestinians. He said his captors threw hot water and rotten food at him in a cage, forced him to sit on broken glass and hung him upside down. Ali's crime was collaborating with Israeli security forces, a requirement under the Oslo accords but a violation of hardline Palestinian law.

The case got the attention late last year of U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who demanded Akel's release and called his incarceration "antithetical to the values of the US & to all who advocate the cause of peaceful coexistence."

Keats-Jaskoll added leading left-wing human rights groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and Code Pink had been silent on Akel's treatment by the Palestinians. She also criticized liberal, anti-Israel figures like Marc Lamont Hill and incoming Palestinian-American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for saying nothing on the matter.
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/palestinian-american-tortured-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-by-pa-for-selling-land-to-jews/

Smotrich on the Arab abductee: "The left was revealed in its naked racism" - Channel 20 - 12/31/2018
He said, "If it had been a Jew who was a citizen of Israel, the ground would have shaken. But this is an Arab then not terrible. It is a black moral stain on the flag of the State of Israel. I call on Defense Minister Netanyahu to bring about his immediate release, even through military force."

Bibi failed in this matter a diligent failure and the Israeli left was exposed in its naked racism. If it was a Jew who was a citizen of Israel, the earth would shake. But this is an Arab so not terrible. It is a black moral stain on the banner of the State of Israel. I call on Defense Minister @netanyahu to bring about his immediate release even if through the use of military force.

http://web.archive.org/web/20190101145939/https://www.20il.co.il/%D7%A1%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%98%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%A5-%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%97%D7%98%D7%95%D7%A3-%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%99-%D7%94%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%AA%D7%92%D7%9C%D7%94-%D7%91%D7%9E/
http://ojolale.wee bly.com/ojolale/039-20

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