Monday, June 22, 2009

Palestinian plots up for grabs


By Dan Nolan in Haifa
Al-Jazeera

"A Palestinian advocacy group is accusing Israel of removing by stealth, what Palestinians see as a one of the key elements of any future peace deal – the right of return for refugees.

Adalah, a legal centre for Arab rights in Israel, claims that the possibility of Palestinians returning to the homes they left in what is now Israel is slowly being eroded away by the sale of an increasing number of their properties to private individuals.

In most cases, the original owners are either in exile or unable to afford the prices offered by tender on the Israel land administration website.

"Based on its law, Israel is allowed, as a state, to use this property. However they are not allowed to sell it to private hands," Hassan Jabareen, the managing director of Adalah, said......

'Absentee properties'

Israel calls them "absentee properties" – houses and land belonging to nearly 700,000 Palestinians who left or were expelled when Israel was created in 1948.

The properties are supposed to be held in trust by the Israel land administration until a final resolution is agreed, but once they are sold to private owners, any right of return becomes almost impossible......."

No comments: