Sensitive land dilemma faces Palestinians in Gaza
JERUSALEM, June 5 (Reuters) A field of sand and scrub now hemmed in by concrete slabs poses a particular dilemma for Palestinians as they decide what to do with Gaza Strip land after Israel abandons its settlements.
This small and troublesome patch of land was privately owned by Jews even before Israel's creation in 1948. Today it is a part of the Kfar Darom Israeli settlement in Gaza. Soon the settlement will be gone and the Palestinian Authority will have to decide whether it should recognise a private Israeli claim.
On one hand the land, smack in the middle of a Palestinian redoubt like Gaza, is unlikely to make an attractive claim for a previous Jewish owner. It is also easy to overlook on a map because it has been part of a settlement since Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war.
On the other hand, Palestinian officials must consider their future land negotiations with Israel, during which they would like to show that their respect for private Jewish claims should be reciprocated. That may make it easier to demand respect for far larger Palestinian claims to land in what is now Israel.
''It is very important that Palestinian authorities deal with this issue properly from the very beginning even if they are talking about a small quantity of land,'' said Ingrid Jaradat, head of the Palestinian Badil refugee advocacy group.
''If we speak about land rights, they should be respected and treated the same way all over, in Palestine and in any similar case in the world where there is a conflict over land rights.'' Although Israel has handed over land to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza before, this is the first time it will have evacuated settlements in those areas, so the issue of how to divide them up has never arisen before.
Several Palestinian officials said any documented Jewish ownership should be recognised, although it was not a top priority.
But they also said it was premature to say if Jews have any legal claim today to land bought before 1948.
One Palestinian property specialist said the land in question was about 55 acres (22.26 hectares) -- less than a third of one percent of the territory Israel will give up in Gaza. Israel also plans to give up four of 120 West Bank settlements.
A Jewish community first established itself there in 1946, but fled during the 1948 Middle East war when Egypt took the Gaza Strip.
Israel founded a new settlement there after 1967.
www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG4_sub.asp
JERUSALEM, June 5 (Reuters) A field of sand and scrub now hemmed in by concrete slabs poses a particular dilemma for Palestinians as they decide what to do with Gaza Strip land after Israel abandons its settlements.
This small and troublesome patch of land was privately owned by Jews even before Israel's creation in 1948. Today it is a part of the Kfar Darom Israeli settlement in Gaza. Soon the settlement will be gone and the Palestinian Authority will have to decide whether it should recognise a private Israeli claim.
On one hand the land, smack in the middle of a Palestinian redoubt like Gaza, is unlikely to make an attractive claim for a previous Jewish owner. It is also easy to overlook on a map because it has been part of a settlement since Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war.
On the other hand, Palestinian officials must consider their future land negotiations with Israel, during which they would like to show that their respect for private Jewish claims should be reciprocated. That may make it easier to demand respect for far larger Palestinian claims to land in what is now Israel.
''It is very important that Palestinian authorities deal with this issue properly from the very beginning even if they are talking about a small quantity of land,'' said Ingrid Jaradat, head of the Palestinian Badil refugee advocacy group.
''If we speak about land rights, they should be respected and treated the same way all over, in Palestine and in any similar case in the world where there is a conflict over land rights.'' Although Israel has handed over land to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza before, this is the first time it will have evacuated settlements in those areas, so the issue of how to divide them up has never arisen before.
Several Palestinian officials said any documented Jewish ownership should be recognised, although it was not a top priority.
But they also said it was premature to say if Jews have any legal claim today to land bought before 1948.
One Palestinian property specialist said the land in question was about 55 acres (22.26 hectares) -- less than a third of one percent of the territory Israel will give up in Gaza. Israel also plans to give up four of 120 West Bank settlements.
A Jewish community first established itself there in 1946, but fled during the 1948 Middle East war when Egypt took the Gaza Strip.
Israel founded a new settlement there after 1967.
www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG4_sub.asp
posted by:
|
Unsubscribed |
-
Re: Land Dilemma
Mon, June 6, 2005 - 8:48 PMthe just thing to do is to recognize the claim.
the dumb thing to do is to just seize the land. that gives right-wing israelis the grounds to say, "see - these savages have no respect for individual rights. now we can't give them back the west bank, out of respect for jews who own land there". it becomes another pretext for what the israeli government surely intends - to never allow a palestinian state in the WB.
less dumb would be to recognize the claim. but you'd have to be very naive to think that would motivate israel to recognize legitimate palestinian claims.
probably the smart thing to do is to hold the land hostage in such a way that brings attention to all of the israeli government's land abuses, by parallelling all of israel's ridiculous land laws. the palestinian leadership should take this tiny piece of land and declare part of it a "green zone" andtherefore not usable by its owner; give part of it to the "palestinian national fund" which makes it the collective property of the palestinian people worldwide; give part of it to a palestinian "custodian of absentee property" (since the jewish owner of the land doesn't live in gaza); expropriate part of it for "national security" and build a wall on it; etc.
if any zionist challenges it (as some right-wing moron is bound to do), that brings out the fact that israel uses the same laws, and moreover uses them as a way to expropriate land and keep palestinians off of it, rather than just as political theater.
