Call for release of US man jailed in Palestine
THE US ambassador to Israel called on Palestinians yesterday to free an American-Palestinian who, the envoy said, was detained for “selling land to a Jew”, apparently violating a long-standing Palestinian ban on selling land to Israelis.
Through its official Wafa news agency, the Palestinian Authority has accused property dealer Issam Akel, a US citizen, of attempting to sell a property in East Jerusalem without permission of his business partners or the authorities. The Wafa report did not identify the intended buyer.
Palestinian law bars selling land to “a hostile state or any of its citizens”, and requires the permission of the Palestinian Authority for all land sales in East Jerusalem. Land sales in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, are highly fraught for Palestinians, who see Israeli efforts to buy up land as part of a plot to cement control. Around 500 000 Israelis live in settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which most foreign powers consider a violation of international law against settling occupied land. “The Palestinian Authority has been holding US citizen Isaam Akel in prison for two months. His suspected ‘crime’? Selling land to a Jew,” US Ambassador David Friedman wrote on Twitter. “Akel’s incarceration is antithetical to the values of the US and to all who advocate the cause of peaceful coexistence.”
Osama al-Qawasme, an official from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement called the US envoy “an ambassador of the settlers”.
“We deplore his statement that Akel’s arrest violated American values. Does building of settlements adhere to American values?” al-Qawasme said. “We in Fatah will confront all attempts to harm the city of Jerusalem or its sacred places.” Akel’s father, Jalal, said a Palestinian court had extended his son’s detention by 45 days on Monday.
“They are stalling. There is no evidence AN ISRAELI bulldozer demolishes a Palestinian structure in the occupied West Bank. About 500 000 Israelis live in settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which most foreign powers consider a violationof international law. | Ma’an
my son sold anything to Israelis, all charges are void,” the father said.
Palestinians consider East Jerusalem to be the capital of their hoped-for future independent state. Israel captured the territory in a 1967 war and has annexed it as part of its own capital in a move not recognised internationally. The Palestinian security forces said 20 people had been arrested in recent years over violating land laws.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled yeserday to grant ownership of Palestinian land, located near the illegal Israeli settlement of Gush Etzion, in the southern occupied West Bank, to the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The ruling allows Israeli settlers to build settlements and confiscate more Palestinian-owned lands “legally.” The 196 Israeli settlements across the Palestine are illegal under international law.