Occupied Jerusalem – Despite the success of the settlement associations in seizing real estate and lands belonging to the Palestinians of Jerusalem, this is often done only through devious methods in which the associations, their lawyers, and the Israeli government behind them adopt laws and procedures that involve a lot of fraud and forgery.
On November 2, the Abu al-Hawa family was the latest Jerusalemite family to succeed in liberating its property from settlement associations, less than two months after it was seized.
The settlers then claimed that they had bought the house from one of the heirs, which turned out to be false, according to the family.
When it was recovered, Ahmed Abu Al-Hawa told Al-Jazeera Net at the time that the only person in charge of the house was Ibtisam Abu Al-Hawa, who had lived in it for a long time, and all official transactions in the occupation departments were in her name.
He added that efforts were made in the Israeli courts to prove fraud in the alleged purchase process, which is what happened, as the decision was issued to restore the house and remove the settlers and their belongings from it.
Target strategic locations
Last June, the Al-Khalidi family from Jerusalem also succeeded in recovering their property located just steps away from Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City, after settlers stormed it and attempted to seize it after forging Jordanian documents.
Khalil Al-Khalidi, who handles the family’s endowments, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the family was able to evacuate the settlers days after they attacked the property, which has an area estimated at approximately 200 square metres, and enjoys a strategic location in the Bab al-Silsilah neighborhood in the Old City, as it overlooks Al-Buraq Square and is located near the mosque. Al-Aqsa.
Jerusalemite lawyer Medhat Diba began his talk to Tel Aviv Tribune Net by saying that most of the properties of Jerusalemites were seized “by force and through crooked methods,” adding that “cases of real estate leaking (selling them surreptitiously) through some brokers can be counted on the fingers and this cannot be considered a phenomenon,” because there is a consensus. And out of concern for Jerusalemites not to sell their homes to relatives, let alone to other suspicious parties?!
Despite this, the occupation seeks – according to lawyer Diba – to control lands and homes through deception, fraud and forgery.
The authorities spare no effort in controlling even shares and parts of real estate, such as those that have been seized due to previous debts incurred by a family member, or as a result of taking judicial measures against a person that entails judicial and legal obligations, so he is blackmailed and bargained for his share, even if it is symbolic, in the property. The property, according to the lawyer.
Alliance of official bodies
Another method of controlling Jerusalem real estate, according to Dibah – who is one of the lawyers with a long history of working in recovering Jerusalem real estate that was seized through fraud – is the alliance of the Israeli official circles against Al-Maqdisi.
For example, if Al-Maqdisi owes the municipality exorbitant sums resulting from certain taxes, the municipality asks the Israeli court to appoint a general trustee for the property that belongs to this person, and the latter, at some point, offers the property for sale in order to pay off the debts, and this trustee is usually a close relative. From the settlement associations or the lawyers who deal with them.
“In one case, I was mistakenly appointed by the court as general custodian of a shop for a family living in Al-Saadiya neighborhood in the Old City. I saved it from settlers, paid the family’s accumulated debt to the municipality, and liberated the property and handed it over to its owners.”
Lawyer Al-Maqdisi pointed out the seriousness of the forgery operations carried out by the “Elad” settlement association, which targets real estate in the town of Silwan, adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque, as it submits forged documents to the “Abandoned Property Custodian” department, and the association claims that a property is devoid of residents and has no owners, so it is registered in its name. The district is then rented to the “Elad” association, which controls it.
“This happened with the Al-Khayyat family in Silwan by claiming that the settlers had bought a share in their property, and we proved that the heiress whose share they claim to buy is incapacitated and cannot sell without having a guardian and guardian appointed by the court. The court issued a decision to vacate the settlers from the property and it was completed.” Return it to its owners,” adds Diba.
Therefore – the lawyer continues – it cannot be said that Al-Maqdisi is selling his house to the settlers, but rather there are desperate attempts by the settlement associations supported by the government, the police and intelligence in order to control what can be controlled of real estate in Old Jerusalem and its surroundings.
Real estate protection
When asked: How can the properties of Jerusalemites be protected from leakage or seizure? Diba answered: This is possible by registering real estate as an atomic endowment or a valid Islamic endowment, but that is not enough and this endowment must be registered with the “Israeli Endowments Registrar” affiliated with the Ministry of Religions.
“When the Jews were subjects of the Islamic State during the Ottoman rule, they bought some real estate and lands and immediately registered endowment claims with the Ottoman Sharia courts at that time, and thus they guaranteed their rights until today,” according to the lawyer, who added that Israel is an occupied state and its laws apply to the city of Jerusalem, so Jerusalemites must register. Their properties are officially registered with it, as it is not enough to register them with the Islamic Endowments Department.
Among the golden advice that Medhat Diba gave to the people of Jerusalem through Tel Aviv Tribune Net is the necessity of constantly paying their dues and taxes to the Israeli official departments, and being careful not to accumulate them in order to miss the opportunity for the various agencies that will intervene to dispose of their properties after seizing them.
Therefore, the lawyer believes that the step of “declaring bankruptcy,” which some Jerusalemites resort to in order to evade paying a certain debt, prompts the concerned authorities to sign a form in which he admits that he has no property.
If it is discovered that he has property in the future or is even an heir to a particular property, he will be seized and handed over to the general custodian of the property, and thus the person falls into the trap of losing the property or a share in it.