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The Palestine Monitor
<br>A PNGO Information Clearinghouse
<br>
<br>UPDATE
<br>
<br>Plans for Massive Israeli Land-grab in East Jerusalem Come to Light
<br>
<br>27 January 2005
<br>
<br>A secret July 2004 Israeli cabinet decision, which has only recently been
<br>publicized, is intended to steal hundreds of acres of East Jerusalem
<br>property worth hundreds of millions of dollars from their rightful owners
<br>who live in the West Bank.
<br>
<br>The decision intends to dust off the long-shelved and highly suspect
<br>‘Absentee Property Law,’ which Israel passed in 1950 to expropriate the land
<br>of Palestinians who were forced to flee from their homes when Israel was
<br>founded in 1948. People whose property is expropriated under this law have
<br>no hope of appeal or compensation.
<br>
<br>Many of the so-called ‘absentees’ whose land will be transferred to the
<br>State of Israel live only a few meters from their land, separated from it by
<br>Israel’s illegal Annexation Wall. Their names and addresses are well known,
<br>and their property deeds prove their rightful ownership.
<br>
<br>Former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, the leader of the Yahad party,
<br>equated the application of the 54-year-old law to property theft.
<br>
<br>While Israel has claimed repeatedly that the Wall is only a temporary
<br>‘security’ measure, the current decision to annex the Palestinian land
<br>sliced away from the West Bank by the Wall is a smoking gun; it is strong
<br>evidence that the Wall is intended for permanent annexation purposes and to
<br>impose facts on the ground tantamount to de facto borders.
<br>
<br>Such unilateral actions effectively negate the possibility for meaningful
<br>negotiations related to final-status issues in the future. They are
<br>devastatingly damaging to prospects for peace and in direct contravention of
<br>international law.
<br>
<br>Specifically, the fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a high
<br>contracting party, states that “Any destruction and/or confiscation by the
<br>occupying power of real or personal property belonging individually or
<br>collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public
<br>authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited.”
<br>
<br>The lead editorial in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on January 21, 2005,
<br>called the decision “theft as well as an act of state stupidity of the
<br>highest order.” The Jewish Voice for Peace accused the Sharon government of
<br>“doing everything it can to exacerbate tensions with the Palestinians.”
<br>
<br>We call on the Israeli government to rescind this law immediately, and we
<br>call on the international community to take unequivocal measures to condemn
<br>and stop the theft of Palestinian lands by Israel. In the current delicate
<br>climate, while the Palestinian Authority is attempting to negotiate an end
<br>to violence in Gaza, such outrageous measures severely frustrate prospects
<br>for peace and justice and damage hopes for global stability and security.
<br>
<br>Such basic injustices reduce prospects for a fair negotiated solution and
<br>can only lead to more conflict and bloodshed on both sides of the Green
<br>Line. <b on></b><!-- 6579 -->
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