HVK Archives: Arafat threatens to execute Arabs who sell land to Jews
Arafat threatens to execute Arabs who sell land to Jews - The Times (London)
Christopher Walker in Jerusalem
()
22 May 1997
Title : Arafat threatens to execute Arabs who sell land to Jews
Author : Christopher Walker in Jerusalem
Publication : The Times (London)
Date : May 22, 1997
Israel is to appeal to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights
against the decision by Yassir Arafat's Palestinian Authority to
impose the death penalty on any local Arab who sells land to Jews.
The Israeli move yesterday came after the suspected murder of two
West Bank land agents by Palestinians in Ramallah and the
announcement of the disappearance of a third in Nablus, who police
fear may also have been killed.
Danny Naveh, the Israeli Cabinet Secretary and chairman of the
government committee established to monitor anti-Semitism, said:
"The decision is in essence racist and reeks of anti-Semitism."
Israel radio claimed that three years ago the UN committee had
pledged to take action against anti-Semitic acts.
Israel's protest came hours after Mr Arafat outraged Israelis by
confirming in an interview with the Tel Aviv daily Yediot Aharonot
that any Palestinian found guilty of selling land to Jews would
face the death penalty. He did not say how the executions would be
conducted.
Last night fears were rising about the possibility of more killings
sanctioned by the Palestinian Authority after Arab residents of
Hebron disclosed that, in recent days, 15 local Palestinians had
been arrested by the Palestinian security services on suspicion of
selling property to Jewish settlers.
Mr Arafat claimed that the death penalty for selling Arab land to
Jews was not new to the West Bank, but had been imposed by Jordan
in 1967 after Israel's capture of the territory. He also claimed
that prosecuting those who sold land to Jews was a legitimate
defence against Israeli policies.
"Israel has always confiscated land from Arabs and dispossessed
them of their property," Mr Arafat said. "The land always goes
from the Arabs to the Jews. Can a Palestinian resident of Nablus or
Hebron buy land in Israel? Therefore, what should we call those
from our nation who serve Israel's policy of stripping property?
We are talking about a few traitors and we will apply what has been
determined by law against them. This is our right and our
obligation to protect our land." Israeli legal sources said that in
the Jordanian era, about 200 death sentences had been imposed by
Amman in absentia, but had never been carried out because Jordan
had no access to the West Bank after its conquest.
Sheikh Sabri Akrama, the Palestinian Authority Mufti of Jerusalem,
said that anyone executed for selling land to the Israelis would be
refused burial in a Muslim cemetery. "The religious edict was
issued against land dealers 70 years ago. Recently we revived it.
Whoever is found selling land to Jews deserves to die. He may not
be prayed over, his body may not be purified before burial and he
may not be buried in a Muslim cemetery. It is our duty to remind
the public of this religious law so as not to enable the Jews to
purchase Arab land and property with dollars that they receive from
America in order to remove us from this land." Land, which has
always been at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has
become even more explosive an issue because of the expansionist
settlement policy of Binyamin Netanyahu, the right-wing Israeli
Prime Minister.
Palestinians are angry because they see their hopes of establishing
a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem threatened
by continued Jewish building in those areas, often on land sold by
Arabs. More than 70 per cent of land at the contested new
settlement site of Har Homa was originally purchased from local
Palestinians by Jews.
Avigdor Kahalani, the Interior Security Minister, reacted bitterly
to the interview, which gave the full weight of the Palestinian
Authority to executions of land dealers.
Speaking in the Knesset, Mr Kahalani said: "The Palestinian
leader's remarks could unleash a wave of violence in the autonomous
areas which the self-rule authority would be unable to control." He
added that they could also be exploited by those wishing to settle
scores.
Relatives of Farid Bashiti, 70, the first land dealer killed after
being lured from an east Jerusalem hotel to Ramallah. by a female
Palestinian agent on May 8, were unable for nearly two weeks to
find anywhere to bury him.
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