PA arrests several Arabs for selling homes to Jews after settler families move into 8 homes near Jericho

The Palestinian Authority (PA) arrested several Palestinians suspected of selling properties outside of Jericho to a Jewish settler organization, Palestinian media reported over the weekend.

The arrests followed Israeli media reports that several Jewish families had moved into eight properties on Jericho’s western outskirts, near the site of a Hasmonean-era synagogue.

Wafa News reported that the settlers entered the properties last Wednesday, allegedly “breaking into the eight houses and smashing their doors.” The report claimed the properties were unoccupied when the settlers arrived.

Palestinian Madar News claimed the Israeli settlers “tricked” Palestinian landowners into selling the properties, telling them that their houses would be demolished by the Israeli military because they were built in Area C without proper permissions.

Madar also reported that the people arrested were real estate brokers in Jericho, Hebron and East Jerusalem – not the property owners.

PA law prohibits selling land to an enemy state or its citizens, including Jews. The law is used to prevent the sale of Palestinian property to Israeli Jewish organizations or to Jewish individuals, rather than sales to Israeli Arabs, which are not investigated. The law is based on previous Jordanian law that prohibited the sale of property to non-Arabs and specifically those considered to be “the enemy.” In 2014, PA President Mahmoud Abbas reinforced the law, setting a minimum five-year prison sentence for such sales. Although the original Jordanian law allowed the death penalty, it requires presidential approval, which Abbas has never granted since taking office in 2006.

The Palestinian Land Authority (PLA) confirmed reports of Israeli settlers moving into the properties located in Area C, which is territory under Israeli civil and military jurisdiction, according to the Oslo Accords.

The PA said some of the homes are located on land it considers state property, while others stand on privately owned land. It added that it lacks complete records of the properties and that the sales were not registered with the Jericho Land Registration Department.

At the same time, the PLA rejected “claims regarding preliminary sales transactions, documents, and powers of attorney, characterizing them as part of the occupation’s policies and schemes aimed at seizing more land and forcibly displacing the population.” The PLA said it referred the incident to PA security and civil authorities.

Palestinians and anti-settler groups have often accused settler organizations of paying Israeli Arabs to function as intermediaries in the purchase of Palestinian lands, so the property owners believe they are selling to an Arab.

Settler movements, like Nachala, have not denied the reports, but have noted that purchases involve properties in Area C, which is under Israeli jurisdiction.

Palestinian news site Al-Usbu reported that the governor of Jericho and the Jordan Valley, Hussein Hamayel, established “a secret committee” to investigate the incident and that he instructed officials not to circulate information about it until the investigation is complete.

According to the Israeli reports, the properties were purchased by the Nachala (Inheritance) settler movement.

Haaretz also reported that IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth was aware of the purchase and the settlers’ plans to move into the properties before the deals were finalized. According to the report, Bluth met with the families before their entry and instructed them to do so secretly.

The IDF denied the Haaretz report but did not give any further details.

Bluth was recently targeted by an Israeli-Palestinian organization, Combatants for Peace, which opposes Israeli rule in Judea and Samaria.

In a petition filed to the foreign ministers of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, the organization called for sanctions against Bluth, claiming that he did not fulfill his responsibility to protect Palestinian citizens and accusing him of participating in “ethnic cleansing.”

“The rapid deterioration in the West Bank demonstrates the urgent need to impose sanctions on Israeli officials involved in it, rather than targeting mainly far-right Israeli organizations and activists,” Combatants for Peace wrote.

"In light of our previous request to sanction Major General Bluth for his role as the official and de facto commander of the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, as well as his personal involvement in facilitating the establishment of a new settlement in Jericho, we urge you to add him immediately to your respective sanctions lists.”