News / Palestine

Palestinians condemn Israeli ruling on al-Quds property

Thursday, 23 April 2015 11:54 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 24 April 2015 12:50 AM ]

This file photo shows a Palestinian property confiscated by Israel in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians have condemned an Israeli court approval of a controversial law that allows the Tel Aviv regime to confiscate Palestinian property in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Mohannad Gebara, a lawyer representing Palestinians, criticized the ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court to approve the contested Absentee Property Law.

He the law is intended “to seize the property of Palestinian refugees… and to legalize the seizure of Palestinian assets.”

“The law determines that property in East [al-Quds] Jerusalem belonging to a Palestinian living in Hebron (al-Khalil) or Ramallah has to be seized by Israel if he was at the time of the Israeli occupation in Ramallah or Hebron or any other city or area of the West Bank,” he told a press conference on Thursday.

Gebara added that the Israeli regime “has also seized several plots of land and thousands of items, contrary to international law.”

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) also condemned the ruling, which came last Thursday, as a plot to “legalize the occupation’s theft.”

Israeli border police arrest a Palestinian protester during a demonstration marking Land Day on March 30, 2015 near the Damascus Gate, in al-Quds. (© AFP)

The law was first passed in 1950. Following the 1967 war, the law was applied to East al-Quds to enable the Tel Aviv regime to confiscate the homes of the Palestinians that are not missing but live in “adversarial” territories.

Palestinian officials have condemned the ruling as racist. They say the main purpose of the law is to totally remove any trace of Palestinians from the occupied al-Quds.

DB/HJL

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