JERUSALEM, Jan 24: Israel is considering enforcing a decades-old law that could strip thousands of Palestinians of titles to property in Arab East Jerusalem, a step Palestinians say would prejudice peace talks.
A lawyer for landowners said some had already been told that their plots in the city had been seized under the Absentee Property Law even though they live nearby - just outside city limits in the West Bank.
Palestinians say such moves could unilaterally alter the status of the holy city just as the recent election of President Mahmoud Abbas has raised fresh hopes for a negotiated solution to the Middle East conflict.
Under the 1950 law, West Bank Palestinians with property in East Jerusalem could be labelled absentee landowners, allowing the state to confiscate their property without compensation. "There is an intention to do that. It hasn't been approved yet. That's all. There are discussions about this law," a senior Israeli official said.
At the time the law was passed, Israel did not control East Jerusalem, but the measure allowed confiscation of property of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who left or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel at its 1948 creation.
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz said a decision to enforce the law in East Jerusalem was taken by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet in July last year, but not made public. But the finance ministry said the law "was applied" to East Jerusalem right after the 1967 war and the title to the properties transferred to the state of Israel.
"It's just an obvious land grab, and it is absolutely illegal," said Sarit Michaeli, spokeswoman for the Israeli rights group B'Tselem. "It is so blatantly an attempt to take as much land as possible with as few Palestinians as possible."
Palestinians say such moves show that even as Israel prepares to withdraw from Gaza later this year, it is working to prejudge a final peace accord by cementing control over other occupied territory that Palestinians want for a viable state. They want East Jerusalem for their capital.
LAWSUIT PLANNED: A prominent Arab lawyer representing Palestinians from the Bethlehem area said they stand to lose more than 400 hectares of farmland within Jerusalem's municipal borders if the absentee law is enforced.
"The next step would be filing a lawsuit on the ownership of the land," said Mohammed Dahleh, adding that his West Bank clients had been told last year they were absentees.
He said the Palestinians were informed the land no longer belonged to them after losing physical access because of a West Bank barrier that Israel says it is building to prevent suicide bombers from reaching the Jewish state.
A foreign ministry spokesman said Palestinians were welcome to challenge Israeli policy in court. The justice and housing ministries and the Jerusalem municipality declined to comment.
Israel says the barrier, which the World Court ruled illegal because it runs within occupied territory, is not a nascent political border and could be shifted or torn down if a peace agreement were reached with Palestinians. -Reuters
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