Al Monitor is usually a pretty good news source, but sometimes they will allow someone who can’t even get their anti-Israel story straight to write an article.
Amany Mahmoud writes:
The Palestinians in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah are increasingly being harassed and attacked by settlers and the Israeli police, in an effort to push them to vacate their homes and hand them over to settlers.In 1972, Israeli associations forged ownership papers of land in Sheikh Jarrah, which the Palestinians own, and registered a number of land plots in the Israel Lands Administration. Yet the team of lawyers in charge of defending the Palestinians found Turkish papers denying Jewish ownership of this land. The Israeli courts, however, rejected the documents claiming Palestinian families’ ownership of the land and insist on the eviction decisions.
OK, so according to the writer, Israelis forged the ownership papers and Israel’s courts are part of the scam – this is stated as fact.
So why haven’t the Jews just taken the houses yet?
Despite the constant harassment, and threats to their lives sometimes, the Palestinians turned down all compromises and mediations by the Israeli courts. This is why the settlers sought to make high financial offers to the Palestinian residents of the neighborhood to leave their homes and sell them to the settlers. Abdel Fattah Skafi, a Palestinian resident who was offered $5 million for his home, which is adjacent to the settlers’ homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, rejected this offer….[Skafi] explained that the Israelis’ position on Sheikh Jarrah is weak, because the ownership papers in their possession are forged and that this is why they are making financial offers.
Why would the corrupt courts offer a compromise?
Moreover, why would Israelis offer millions of dollars for a home if they have already forged the documents of ownership and the courts already accept those documents? Those Jews should be able to steal the houses just like Palestinians claim they do all the time!
The writer is trying to have it both ways, saying that Israelis steal the land but that the Arabs are steadfast enough to reject multi-million dollar offers.
I wish I was that harassed with such an offer for my home.
The truth is much simpler and doesn’t require such contradictions. The Jews who legally own some homes in Sheikh Jarrah have already shown their proof of ownership. Israeli courts don’t want to award the Jews the homes because it would become an international incident.
However, most houses in the area really are legally owned by Arabs, and some Jews offer them huge sums to purchase them. Many Arabs in Silwan accept that cash and then escape out of the country because their neighbors would kill them for selling land to a Jew.
See? When you have the truth on your side, there is no reason to spin self-contradicting lies.
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