Jewish NGO Takes over Palestinian-owned Building in Jerusalem

[King_David]

JERUSALEM, August 27, 2015 (WAFA) – Ateret Cohanim Jewish organization Thursday forcefully took over a Palestinian-owned building in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, according to Wadi Hilweh Information Center (WHIC).

WHIC said some 60 Israeli settlers broke into the area before dawn and broke into a Palestinian-owned building, claiming they had purchased it from a Jerusalemite Palestinian named Jamal Sarhan. The settlers declared the building a Jewish property.

According to WHIC, Sarhan earlier asked the tenants, all of whom are Palestinians, to leave their apartments by force in order to make way for the settlers. It said while most of the Palestinian tenants were forced to leave, one of them refused to leave his apartment and tried change the doors’ locks. The settlers, nevertheless, were able to open the locks and enter the premises.

According to local sources, Sarhan is a high-profile broker who in recent years attempted to pass the ownership of several Palestinian properties to Jewish organizations.

In November 2011, several members of the Sarhan family of Jerusalem declared in a signed statement that they are not responsible for any actions committed by Sarhan. The family secluded itself from Sarhan and his offspring.

The family said it was exempted from any legal, moral, tribal or any other obligation due to actions, mainly selling properties to Jews, by Jamal and his children at any time.


http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=29181

[King_David]

1. Some more interesting bits (my bolding)

Palestinian government and civil society organizations have at times considered all those who sell their property to Jewish settlers or settler organizations as “traitors”.

In October 2014, President Mahmoud Abbas toughened the penalty for citizens selling property to Israelis by imposing a sentence of hard labor for life on “anyone diverting, renting or selling land to an enemy state or one of its subjects.”

In the closing statement of a Ramallah conference on October 2014, Fatah’s Revolutionary Council accused Palestinians who sold their property of “high treason,” calling on the government and legal system to “take the necessary steps to deter them.”

The movement also called on the public to “boycott and humiliate them on all popular levels.”

“Those whose sick souls allowed them to sell their land or homes, or enable such sales to the enemies of the Palestinian people, are a gang of traitors to their nation and religion,” said Fatah spokesman Osama al-Qawasmi in a statement previously published by WAFA. “They have brought shame and scorn upon themselves in this world and in the afterlife.”

[6chars]

2. A lot to unpack

Was the building legally purchased? Did the tenants have a legal right to stay? If not, what is the legal process for evicting tenants? From the article, there are clearly differences between Palestinian real estate law and what we are used to in the u.s.

[King_David]

3. Yes

that is putting it mildly, and also the PA decrees complicating it all.

[6chars]

8. And I thought a 6% commission was excessive

Still do.

[Scootaloo]

4. So, he's a scumbag absentee landlord

Those are always fun to have.

[King_David]

5. Probably lives overseas....

[Scootaloo]

6. I wouldn't know

But there's a special place in hell for people who force last-minute evictions to scrape a few dollars (or shekels, I guess) out of the renters.

There was post on DU not too long ago urging people to imagine a world where home rental wasn't a thing, where homes weremandated to be bought and sol, owner to customer, rather than rented. it got a lot of negative reseption at the time, but the more I think about it the more sense it makes, really.

[Little Tich]

7. Ateret Cohanim is a truly despicable organization.

Judaizing Jerusalem by evicting Arab tenants and throwing them out on the street so that Jewish settlers can move is grotesque. This would never happen in a civilized country.

But seriously, WAFA? They're not neutral. I had to cross-check with other sources to see if the news was even true.