Palestinian Authority lifts temporary freeze on land deals involving Israeli citizens
The suspension followed the purchase of eight homes near Jericho by Jewish activists and raised questions about PA jurisdiction over Area C properties.
By Chinedu Schneider ·
The Palestinian Authority announced it had temporarily suspended land registration transactions for individuals holding Israeli citizenship or Jerusalem residency. The measure was enacted last week and has since been lifted. The freeze followed the acquisition of eight homes by Jewish activists in the vicinity of Jericho.
Jericho is located in Area A of the West Bank, a zone under Palestinian civil and security control. However, the specific properties in question are situated in Area C, which remains under full Israeli civil and security control. Under the Oslo Accords, the PA does not hold territorial jurisdiction over Area C, nor does it hold personal jurisdiction over Israeli citizens.
Maurice Hirsch, a former lieutenant colonel and director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, analyzed the decision in a publication for the center. Hirsch suggested the PA likely assumed the Jewish buyers had received assistance from Arab Israelis. He argued the move revealed a contradiction in PA policy, which views Arab citizens of Israel as Palestinians while simultaneously using their Israeli citizenship to restrict their property transactions.
Hirsch noted that the restrictions extend the consequences of PA policy beyond those living under PA jurisdiction to include Arab citizens and residents of Israel. The PA has long considered the approximately two million Arab citizens of Israel to be Palestinian, regardless of their integration into Israeli society or their military service.
Palestinian law classifies the sale or lease of land to Israeli Jews as an act of treason. The offense carries severe penalties, including life imprisonment with hard labor and potentially the death penalty. Courts have applied these statutes in recent years. In 2019, a court in Nablus sentenced a Palestinian man to five years in prison for allegedly attempting to sell land to Israeli Jews. In 2018, a court in Kalkilya sentenced two Palestinian men to 15 years of hard labor for their involvement in a network seeking to transfer West Bank land to Israeli Jews.
The PA has previously attempted to prosecute Arab Israelis for their alleged roles in land transfers to Jewish buyers, despite the Oslo Accords excluding Israeli citizens from its personal jurisdiction. The combination of the properties' location in Area C and the buyers' Israeli citizenship raises questions about the PA's legal authority to investigate or prosecute the parties involved in the recent purchases.
