PA affirms death penalty for land sales to Jews

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The Palestinian Authority on Sunday reaffirmed the death penalty for any Palestinian found guilty of selling land to Israelis. The decision came in response to a ruling by a Palestinian court according to which such acts were only a “minor offense.” PA Prosecutor-General Ahmed al-Mughni appealed against the ruling to a higher court, arguing that the sale of land to Israelis was a “major offense” punishable by death.

The appeal was accepted. That verdict considering such offenses a major offense is aimed at reminding Palestinians of the PA law that prohibits selling land to Jews, Mughni said. The land law, which was originally put in force by Jordan between 1948 and 1967, carries the death sentence. The PA says the law is necessary to prevent the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

In 1997, the PA announced that it would seek the death penalty for any Palestinian convicted of selling land to Jews or Israelis, in accordance with the Jordanian “Law for Preventing the Sale of Real Estate to the Enemy.” According to the 1973 legislation, the sale of property to Jews or Israelis constitutes a crime against state security and well-being, punishable by death and the confiscation of the culprit’s possessions. The PA later drafted its own law to replace the Jordanian statute. The law is called the “Property Law for Foreigners.” It describes the sale of land to “occupiers” as an act of “national treason.” Although the PA has thus far refrained from executing those convicted of selling land to Jews, there have been many extrajudicial killings of Palestinian suspects over the past decades.

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Original piece is http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=188604&prmusr=7k3bLOyKHP%2f38v26rq2aXr10Nw3cGr03UXt%2bHX6%2bniKGyoP%2bhrHQX8l2ztmR0j2S

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Just imagine for a moment, the global outcry, the constant, international condemnation and utter contempt, the demonstrations and screaming masses outside the UN, bearing signs and yelling \"racist pigs!!!\" - had this been an Israeli law, confirmed by the Israeli courts, and calling for the death penalty for anyone selling land to a Muslim or Arab in Israel. The press would have written column up and column down, from London to Dubai. We would hear of nothing else! Israel would again be compared to South Africa in the midst of the most racist and oppressive moments of that inglorious past. The President of the United States would stand before the world in a global broadcast, demanding the repeal of this insidious attack on reason and Western values – yes, it would be called an attack on civilization itself, and the very reason we fought so bitterly against Nazi oppression. But given that the law has been not only suggested, but actually confirming by the Palestinian Authority in it’s court of law - that peace loving bastion of Arabic Muslim love and reconciliation – calling for the death penalty for an Arab selling land to an Israeli, it all becomes permissible, and downright understandable. We don\"t see a word printed about it. No one makes a single mention of it in the news. The BBC is quiet. The law receives no condemnation whatsoever. Sometimes I seriously wonder if the world is in a state of mass hypnosis, and we stand here, like in some movie where the planet has been invaded by aliens who take over the bodies of mankind, leaving but a small group who in random searches for those still human, band together in fear and disbelief, wondering how they will survive in this seemingly hopeless reality preposterously thrust upon them….Does anyone wonder why Israelis have a common sense that there will never be peace? Does anyone question whether a regime of hatred and evil like the Nazi National Socialists could occur again? Does anyone serious question Israeli contempt for their so-called modern, democratic partners in the Western world? Who can blame them?

Posted by brian_007 on 2010-10-02 11:41:02 GMT

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PA affirms death penalty for land sales to Jews

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