World Zionist Organization Investigated for selling Palestinian Private Land to Illegal Israeli Settlers

Published Sunday 19/07/2009 (updated) 20/07/2009 14:37

Israel’s Attorney General has ordered police to investigate whether the World Zionist Organization (WZO) allocated private Palestinian land for construction in the illegal Israeli settlement of Ofra, north of Ramallah.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Attorney General Menahem Mazuz ordered the probe after five Palestinian landowners filed a petition with the Court of Justice to stop construction of five illegal settler houses.

The newspaper said construction was well underway when the petition was submitted, with the help of two Israeli human rights groups, Yesh Din and B'Tselem. By the time of the hearing, the houses were already inhabited.

During the hearing, the Israeli state's lawyers conceded that the buildings were on private Palestinian land, the newspaper said, citing a Channel Two television report.

Israel’s Justice Ministry wrote a letter to Yesh Din stating that it was launching an investigation.

The expropriation of Palestinian land in the West Bank for settlements often takes place through a series of bureaucratic transactions that obscure the overall project of settlement expansion.

The newspaper also said the settlers who purchased the land showed the court their contracts with the settlement division of the WZO. These documents stated that the land was transferred to the WZO by the Civil Administration official in charge of “abandoned property” in the West Bank.

The WZO’s settlement division in turn transferred the property to Ofra's “partnership organization,” which sold it to the settlers, the report stated.

Israel weighing confiscating private Palestinian land

Published today (updated) 21/07/2009 12:14 [Ma'anImages] Bethlehem – Ma’an –

The Israeli occupation government is considering confiscating more privately-owned Palestinian land near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ofra, according to an Israeli newspaper.

The confiscation would go against a pledge made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his policy address at Bar-Ilan University in June.

The Haaretz daily reported on Tuesday that Israel’s state prosecutor made this announcement in response to a High Court petition filed by a resident of the West Bank town of Ein Yabrud and the human rights organization Yesh Din.

The petitioners sought the demolition of a sewage treatment plant built illegally by settlers on the town's land.

The prosecutor’s announcement says the Israeli state is considering turning the site into a sewage treatment plant that would serve both the settlement and nearby Palestinian communities, according to the newspaper.

The news comes just two days after Israel’s Attorney General ordered an investigation into the World Zionist Organization (WZO) for allegedly allocating private Palestinian land for sale to settlers, also near Ofra.

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