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./* These are fixed rate certificates of deposit that are insured by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). A minimum opening deposit and balance of $500.00 is required to obtain the stated Annual Percentage Yield. FLAGSTMR' BAN K EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY CALL (810)338-7700 or (810)352.7700 LENDER Main Office 2600 Telegraph Rd. Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302 **** FederCZly nsured * * to Swo.octo *Annual percentage yield when compounded quarterly. Rate is accurate as of 6/13/97. Penalty for early withdrawal from certificate accounts may be assessed. .1 LINCOLN a" .0"9"ei•Z Mercury "Superstar" Used Cars HYunoRi TOYOTA mama SUZUKI. Ask anyone who owns one.- "EQUITY TRADE" WE PAY OFF YOUR TRADE REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH YOU OWE! AUTOMOTIVE GROUP Cr) WE GUARANTEE • • • A F-A-R-R BETTER DEAL! LLI - uJ THE SUPERSTAR DEALER 2 4 "The Bigger We Get... The Better Deals You Get!" CALL 1-800-MEL-FARR 24 Hour Information Center Est. in 1975 CC 74 The Perfect Family Gift... A Subscription To The Jewish News. (248) 354-6620 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