12 MONTH
CERTIFICATE
5.75%
On Bloody Ground
INTEREST RATE
The Palestinians pass a law condemning to death
Arabs who sell land to Jews.
5.870
A.F.Y./*
AVI MACHLIS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
S fitting at ease in his east
Jerusalem office, Khalil
Tawfakji describes him-
self as a simple geograph-
er. But if you look carefully
through his neatly arranged
files, you will find the names of
Palestinian land dealers whose
lives are now endangered by
their own people.
Tawfakji, a large Palestinian
with a moustache and a quick
bellowing laugh, denies em-
phatically that he works for the
Palestinian Authority that re-
cently issued the decree declar-
ing the death penalty for Arabs
who sell land to Jews.
Tawfakji, who has been mon-
itoring West Bank land tenure
for 15 years, is now custodian of
some of the hottest data in the
region.
In contrast to Palestinian po-
litical leaders, he cautiously de-
clined to comment on the
Authority's decision to revive the
defunct Jordanian law. But he
is keenly aware that in the un-
resolved struggle between Israel
and the Palestinians over bor-
60 MONTH
CERTIFICATE
6.00%
6.13%
INTEREST RATE
A.P.Y./*
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is required to obtain the stated Annual Percentage Yield.
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ders and Palestinian statehood,
even the smallest real-estate
transaction has political conse-
quences.
"New York Jews have billions (—/
of dollars of land in their pos-
session in New York," he said.
"But it's clear that the U.S. gov-
ernment is the sovereign. Here,
we are two people fighting
for one small piece of land."
Land here is the crux of any
future permanent political
agreement between Israel and
the Palestinians. It arouses deep
emotions in many Israelis andC--\
Palestinians.
On the Palestinian side, a
murder now casts its shadow
over the increasingly troubled
relations between Israel and the
Authority.
Farid Bashiti, a Palestinian
real-estate agent who allegedly
played a part in land sales to Is-
rael, was murdered just after )
the Palestinian Authority an *-_\
nounced its revival of the dra-
conian land sales *law earlier
this month. And though the Au-
thority disavowed involvement
*
Land By
Any Means
I
n Israel, there are no com-
parable laws making land
sales to Arabs a capital of-
fense. But exclusivist land
policy played a historic role in
the Zionist movement's mission.
While the means differed
drastically, the goals were sim-
ilar — by any means necessary
to acquire land anticipated to
become their future state.
In fact, the original charter
of the Jewish National Fund,
which bought land in Palestine
on behalf of the Jewish people
before the existence of Israel,
dictates that JNF lands "can-
not be leased or sold to Arabs."
Today, the state owns 80 per-
cent of the approximately
13,041 square miles of land in-
side Israel's pre-1967 borders.
All of this land is administered
by the Israel Lands Authority
which, by law, is forbidden to
sell any property in its posses-
sion.
The lands authority also
manages lands owned by the
JNF, the land acquisition arm
for Jews worldwide, which
makes up another 13 percent
of Israel's land area. On that
territory, the restrictions in
J1\17's original charter against
leasing to Arabs still holds.
According to Shia Segal,
press adviser for the lands au-
thority, "there is no discrimi-
nation whatsoever" in leasing
of the other lands, and "hun-
JNF lands cannot
be leased or sold to
Arabs.
dreds of thousands of [Israeli] \
Arabs are living on lands
leased from the Mts.."
The lands authority also can-
not lease land to foreigners.
Segal explains that this pro-
hibition keeps "hostile ele-
ments" from setting foot into
the country. "We only have one
small state to settle all the
Jews of the world," he ex-
plained.
— Avi Machlis