Some have already articulated the concept of using land as reparations for Jewish lives lost to Arab terror. This is a wonderful idea, but it needs to be brought into reality in a more insidious fashion, otherwise it would never be accepted legally. May I propose that Jews around the world be willing to pay to redeem private lands in Israel as a pretext and prelude to the confiscation of Arab land for their crimes. I have read a few commentators here who believe, as I do, that Arabs don?t fear death as much as they fear the loss of what they perceive to be their land. The laws pertaining to the lands may be gleaned briefly at the website http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1991to_now_israel_land.php. It becomes obvious that there are legal issues that must be considered.
?In order to purchase land for the resettlement of Jews in their ancient homeland, the Fifth Zionist Congress (1901) created a private charitable organization called the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Before the State of Israel was established in 1948, land purchased by the JNF was not resold, but was instead leased out on a long-term basis to create kibbutzim and other forms of Jewish settlement. After 1948, state-owned lands formerly in the possession of British Mandatory Authorities, together with property abandoned by Arab refugees, passed into the control of the new Israeli government. Some of this land was sold by the government to the JNF, which had developed expertise in reclaiming and developing waste and barren lands and making them productive.
In 1960, under Basic Law: Israel Lands, JNF-owned land and government-owned land were together defined as "Israel lands," and the principle was laid down that such land would be leased rather than sold. The JNF retained ownership of its land, but administrative responsibility for the JNF land, and also for government-owned land, passed to a newly created agency called the Israel Land Administration or ILA. Of the total land in Israel in 1997, the Israel Government Press Office statistics say 79.5% was owned by the government, 14% was privately owned by the JNF, and the rest, around 6.5%, was evenly divided between private Arab and Jewish owners. Thus, the ILA administers 93.5% of the land in Israel.
The relatively unrestricted access to land in Israel is in sharp contrast with Arab policies. During the 1948-1967 Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), for example, Jews were forbidden to live there under pain of death. In 1973, under the direct instructions of King Hussein, the government of Jordan passed the Law for Preventing the Sale of Immoveable Property to the Enemy. The "enemy" is defined in Article 2 as: ?... any man or judicial body [corporation] of Israeli citizenship living in Israel or acting on its behalf.?
This law, or equivalent, continued in effect under the Palestinian Authority (PA). By 1997, 172 people had been sentenced to death under this law, although "only" about ten have been executed. (However, when Israel handed over administrative control of Area A and B to the Palestinians, they gave them all the files of land registration applications. Most of those Arabs who sold to Jews were killed, without trial. So the number ten is misleading because it enumerates official executions that went to trial.)
The PA/Jordanian law is invalid under the Oslo II agreement and is one of the many violations of the Oslo peace process agreements by the PA. Palestinian land dealers in PA controlled areas have been murdered as "collaborators", a practice that was publicly condoned by Yasser Arafat. In 1995, following the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, the Jordanian Parliament repealed the 1973 law and replaced it with milder statutes that still effectively bar Israelis from purchasing or leasing land in Jordan.
Therefore, there are different classes of land whose legal status is different and if it is going to be confiscated, the legal underpinnings will be different for different lands and need to be compelling enough to justify legally. The irony of it is that the fellow Arabs of those in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) are so sick of the status quo that they are willing to sell thousands of acres to the highest bidder.
That?s where we come in. Shmuel Neumann and others have been working tirelessly to acquire Yesha lands from Arabs and bring them into Jewish hands, for as little as US$60,000 for a 25-acre homestead with an Arab village house on it. We may be able to convince them to throw in a few goats. For every Jewish life lost, a certain amount of land must be purchased. Since the first intifada, some 660 Jews have died. At 100 dunamim (25 acres) per Jewish soul, we are behind by 6,600 dunamim. We should have a coordinated and systematic way of doing this. There are several thousand dunamim that Arabs are willing to sell. If we have a coordinated redemption auction and call for all Jews of the world to redeem land every time a Jewish life is lost, how many of us would participate?
In the early 20th century, the families of the Arabs of Israel moved to what is now Israel in the hopes of a better future for themselves. In the new Jewish state, there were jobs aplenty, education for their children and the promise of a modern democracy. Instead, they were turned into a scapegoat for the entire Arab world, forced into the role of oppressed refugees by their own crooked leadership, contained in poverty, and exploited by the western anti-Semitic media.
Hundreds of thousands of Arabs have elected to relocate abroad. They want nothing more than a chance for a normal life. They want to live in an area free of tyranny, injustice, and free from those who have exploited them for generations. They understand that were they to stay, they are condemning their children to a lifetime of poverty, abuse by the so-called Palestinian leadership, and anarchy. They do not want to become full-fledged Israelis, which in the future would require three years of army service from their boys and girls just like any other Israeli citizen. They certainly do not want to pay the high taxes that other Israelis pay. Acquisition of their land on the open market, with the assistance of social service agencies, such as Hamotzi, helping them process their visa applications, find jobs and housing abroad, and adequately preparing them for migration, is an attractive solution for the sake of peace. They want out and many Arab-sympathizing nations, like France, will gladly take them.
At the outset, we would purchase private Arab lands in Israel, but the Arabs would gradually begin to forfeit government controlled lands. We are planning communities with 25 acre estates and golf courses and parks in Yesha.
This would be the sweetest revenge. As sweet a revenge as a Jewish soul can get. Such a program would be a pretext for the confiscation of government-controlled Arab lands as reparations for lost Jewish souls. In other words, we buy Arab private lands as a prelude to the confiscation of government-controlled lands. There is already an outcry from certain quarters about buying Arab lands, but when the confiscation begins, the outcry will be muted, because many won?t be able to discern the difference between buying and confiscating the lands in question.
[Please contact Shmuel Neumann at www.yesha.homestead.com or, if you prefer to participate anonymously for fear of the long arm of the PA, then you may e-mail me.]
?In order to purchase land for the resettlement of Jews in their ancient homeland, the Fifth Zionist Congress (1901) created a private charitable organization called the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Before the State of Israel was established in 1948, land purchased by the JNF was not resold, but was instead leased out on a long-term basis to create kibbutzim and other forms of Jewish settlement. After 1948, state-owned lands formerly in the possession of British Mandatory Authorities, together with property abandoned by Arab refugees, passed into the control of the new Israeli government. Some of this land was sold by the government to the JNF, which had developed expertise in reclaiming and developing waste and barren lands and making them productive.
In 1960, under Basic Law: Israel Lands, JNF-owned land and government-owned land were together defined as "Israel lands," and the principle was laid down that such land would be leased rather than sold. The JNF retained ownership of its land, but administrative responsibility for the JNF land, and also for government-owned land, passed to a newly created agency called the Israel Land Administration or ILA. Of the total land in Israel in 1997, the Israel Government Press Office statistics say 79.5% was owned by the government, 14% was privately owned by the JNF, and the rest, around 6.5%, was evenly divided between private Arab and Jewish owners. Thus, the ILA administers 93.5% of the land in Israel.
The relatively unrestricted access to land in Israel is in sharp contrast with Arab policies. During the 1948-1967 Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), for example, Jews were forbidden to live there under pain of death. In 1973, under the direct instructions of King Hussein, the government of Jordan passed the Law for Preventing the Sale of Immoveable Property to the Enemy. The "enemy" is defined in Article 2 as: ?... any man or judicial body [corporation] of Israeli citizenship living in Israel or acting on its behalf.?
This law, or equivalent, continued in effect under the Palestinian Authority (PA). By 1997, 172 people had been sentenced to death under this law, although "only" about ten have been executed. (However, when Israel handed over administrative control of Area A and B to the Palestinians, they gave them all the files of land registration applications. Most of those Arabs who sold to Jews were killed, without trial. So the number ten is misleading because it enumerates official executions that went to trial.)
The PA/Jordanian law is invalid under the Oslo II agreement and is one of the many violations of the Oslo peace process agreements by the PA. Palestinian land dealers in PA controlled areas have been murdered as "collaborators", a practice that was publicly condoned by Yasser Arafat. In 1995, following the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, the Jordanian Parliament repealed the 1973 law and replaced it with milder statutes that still effectively bar Israelis from purchasing or leasing land in Jordan.
Therefore, there are different classes of land whose legal status is different and if it is going to be confiscated, the legal underpinnings will be different for different lands and need to be compelling enough to justify legally. The irony of it is that the fellow Arabs of those in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) are so sick of the status quo that they are willing to sell thousands of acres to the highest bidder.
That?s where we come in. Shmuel Neumann and others have been working tirelessly to acquire Yesha lands from Arabs and bring them into Jewish hands, for as little as US$60,000 for a 25-acre homestead with an Arab village house on it. We may be able to convince them to throw in a few goats. For every Jewish life lost, a certain amount of land must be purchased. Since the first intifada, some 660 Jews have died. At 100 dunamim (25 acres) per Jewish soul, we are behind by 6,600 dunamim. We should have a coordinated and systematic way of doing this. There are several thousand dunamim that Arabs are willing to sell. If we have a coordinated redemption auction and call for all Jews of the world to redeem land every time a Jewish life is lost, how many of us would participate?
In the early 20th century, the families of the Arabs of Israel moved to what is now Israel in the hopes of a better future for themselves. In the new Jewish state, there were jobs aplenty, education for their children and the promise of a modern democracy. Instead, they were turned into a scapegoat for the entire Arab world, forced into the role of oppressed refugees by their own crooked leadership, contained in poverty, and exploited by the western anti-Semitic media.
Hundreds of thousands of Arabs have elected to relocate abroad. They want nothing more than a chance for a normal life. They want to live in an area free of tyranny, injustice, and free from those who have exploited them for generations. They understand that were they to stay, they are condemning their children to a lifetime of poverty, abuse by the so-called Palestinian leadership, and anarchy. They do not want to become full-fledged Israelis, which in the future would require three years of army service from their boys and girls just like any other Israeli citizen. They certainly do not want to pay the high taxes that other Israelis pay. Acquisition of their land on the open market, with the assistance of social service agencies, such as Hamotzi, helping them process their visa applications, find jobs and housing abroad, and adequately preparing them for migration, is an attractive solution for the sake of peace. They want out and many Arab-sympathizing nations, like France, will gladly take them.
At the outset, we would purchase private Arab lands in Israel, but the Arabs would gradually begin to forfeit government controlled lands. We are planning communities with 25 acre estates and golf courses and parks in Yesha.
This would be the sweetest revenge. As sweet a revenge as a Jewish soul can get. Such a program would be a pretext for the confiscation of government-controlled Arab lands as reparations for lost Jewish souls. In other words, we buy Arab private lands as a prelude to the confiscation of government-controlled lands. There is already an outcry from certain quarters about buying Arab lands, but when the confiscation begins, the outcry will be muted, because many won?t be able to discern the difference between buying and confiscating the lands in question.
[Please contact Shmuel Neumann at www.yesha.homestead.com or, if you prefer to participate anonymously for fear of the long arm of the PA, then you may e-mail me.]