Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: selling land to Jews

Showing posts with label selling land to Jews. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Arabic media claim Kfar Saba is purely Arab. A Talmudic-era mosaic says otherwise.

The Palestinian Safa news site writes about Kfar Saba, which it claims is a purely Arab town that had been taken over by Jews who are fabricating a Jewish history there.

I always enjoy researching stories like this, because I learn things - and almost invariably, what I learn is that there is a far deeper Jewish connection to everywhere in Israel than an Arab one.

The most impressive evidence is at the Kfar Saba Museum, where a mosaic floor found in a Talmudic-era synagogue there show the name of the city in easily-readable Hebrew.

There is an irony in Kfar Saba: The Muslims built a shrine a few hundred years ago they say was the Tomb of Benjamin based on an earlier Jewish tradition. Some Jews converted it into a synagogue after the Arabs abandoned the village in 1948. But any tomb of Benjamin, the son of Jacob (Israel), would obviously have more meaning for Jews than for Muslims - yet they claim that this tomb is a Muslim site that the Jews are stealing!

And if it is really a Muslim holy site - why did Muslims burn the shrine in 2022?

The modern Kfar Saba was created when Jews legally purchased land from the Arabs of Kafr Saba nearby in the late 19th century. There were attacks against Jews from the town in 1936 as well as 1948 even though the Arab village signed a truce with the Jewish village in December. Benny Morris writes how the Arab Liberation Army extorted fleeing residents:

The fleeing Arabs left some of their own behind:

So the Jews were there before the Arabs, the Jews purchased the land from the Arabs, the Arabs broke a truce agreement with the Jews, and the Arabs fled the heavy fighting while the Jews stayed.

And now the Arabs claim the Jews stole it from them!

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Jordanian MP worried that Jews might be allowed to buy land in Jordan

Last week, the Jordanian parliament passed a bill that allowed the transfer of state-owned land to government investment funds or companies.

Jordanian politicians warned at the time that the bill could be used to sell land to Israelis.

Jordanian MP Saleh Al-Armouti yesterday warned against amending the real estate property bill to give Israelis the right to buy land in Jordan as investors, Quds Press reported.

Speaking to the news site, Al-Armouti said that this law may lead to state land being handed to Zionist firms or figures who hold foreign passports without sufficient checks being made.

“This is dangerous,” he said, “and it will give Zionists a chance to own land in the kingdom,” recalling previous Zionist attempts to own land in Wadi Musa and Wadi Araba.

If this happens, he explained, their ambitions may expand to points beyond this “as there are Zionist voices who claim rights to Jordanian lands.”

Many Jordanians have a paranoid fear that Israelis will buy up all the land, when they don't have the equally paranoid fear that Israelis will expel all Palestinians to Jordan.

In Arabic, though, the real fear comes through:

Exclusive - Representative Ayoub Khamis criticized granting the cabinet powers to delegate state lands through the real estate property law, indicating that everyone (deputies and citizens) was surprised by the articles mentioned in the law.
Khamis pointed out that the diversion of the lands of Palestine to the Jews began by selling them to others, and when the Jews entered Palestine, a large part of those lands were owned by the Jews through sale, stressing that the lands of Jordan were endowed for the Hashd and Rabat and should not be waived.
Khamis expressed his fear that people and companies would give up lands that the Council of Ministers will grant to investors in favor of Jewish people, indicating that 80% of Jordan's land is (potentially in play.)

Not Zionists or Israelis - but Jews.

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The Mufti tried to establish an anti-Jewish university in Jerusalem

World Islamic Congress in Jerusalem, 1931

In the Winter 2022 edition of the Institute of Palestine Studies journal, pseudo-historian Ilan Pappe puts forth a theory:

This article asks, why was there no Arab university in Mandatory Palestine (while there were two Jewish universities). Apparently, the colonial mentality of the British authorities who deemed the Palestinians yet another colonized people who had to be oppressed, while regarding the Zionist settlers as fellow colonialists, feared that such a university would enhance the Palestinian national movement. At the same time, Zionist pressure, British anti-Arab racism, and lack of resources also combined to undermine the emergence of a proper Palestinian higher education system.

According to Pappe's abstract, the main reason an Arab university was not established was British racism. Yet even he admits that the British allowed other Arab institutions of higher learning to be established in Palestine.

The truth is only partially mentioned in the article:

After the Buraq disturbances, some members of the Palestinian political leadership and most notably Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husayni attempted a different path. It was in the wake of the All-Islamic Congress convened in Jerusalem in 1931 that the real efforts to open such a university began in earnest in 1932. The coordinating committee of the All-Islamic Congress sent delegations to Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, and India for fundraising for an Islamic University in Jerusalem.

... [British] opposition was not the only reason that the idea of the Islamic university in Jerusalem petered out. Unfortunately, these fundraising missions, particularly the mufti’s long fundraising trip to Iraq and India in 1933, were not successful in raising the funds necessary to establish a university in Jerusalem. Nor was there enough interest among activists in convening a second congress in the city, and that led to the collapse of the organizational capacity of the World Islamic Congress by the end of 1934.48 Although the local press constantly mentioned the idea of reviving the university project and holding another congress in Jerusalem in the years that followed, those plans came to nothing and were soon forgotten. As mentioned, even after the mufti’s escape from Palestine in 1937, he was still involved in the efforts until 1940; soon after he also lost interest in the project.

The antisemitic Mufti of Jerusalem couldn't galvanize nearly enough interest in the Arab world to build the "Islamic University in Jerusalem." He couldn't raise the funds and he lost interest himself. It doesn't appear that British opposition had much if anything to do with this - the Mufti certainly didn't consider that an obstacle.

Which means that Pappe is not telling the truth.

Other sources fill in more gaps. Pappe touches on this, but this article notes Egyptian opposition to the university:

The news that the [Islamic] conference would support the creation of an Islamic university in Jerusalem was seen as a direct threat to the dominating status of al-Azhar as the most prestigious university in the Islamic world. Thus, for example, Muhammad Bakhit, former Mufti of Egypt, in his public statement against the conference, also criticised the 'dreams' of those who pretended to establish a new university which would become the new scientific centre of the Muslim world. The loud opposition of al-Azhar to the conference must have also affected the cautious reaction of the opposition parties in Egypt. Although they might have been eager to use it as a stage to attack Sidqi's regime, Wafdist and Liberal leaders, being Egyptian nationalists, could not accept the eventuality that a non-Egyptian caliph would be nominated at the conference. Similarly, these leaders opposed any alleged attempt to erode the prestige of al-Azhar as the most respected centre of Islamic teaching. Even Egyptian advocates of the Palestinian Arab cause, such as Muhammad Ali Alluba and Ahmad Zaki, called for its postponement.

The entire purpose of the university was to help the Mufti's power base as well as to oppose the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which had attracted prestige very quickly. But it was also a means to make land unavailable for Jews to buy, as Pappe notes:

Some funding did come through. The nizam (ruler) of Hyderabad donated one million rupees. ...That sum of money was used to buy land in the Tulkarm district that was endowed as a waqf for the future university. At least in this respect, the mufti could have been satisfied; he prevented the sale of the land coveted by the Zionist movement and ensured a future investment for the university. Alas, it was a short-lived victory as the village (Raml Zayta/Khirbat Qazaza) was destroyed in 1948 and on its ruins Jewish settlements were built and the university was not established.

This nexus between endowment, struggling against Zionist purchase of land, and the university enthused also Christian activists in the national movement. Members of the Christian Orthodox community were prepared to do more than send words of congratulations. Most notable in this respect was ‘Isa al-‘Isa, the editor of Filastin, who sent the World Islamic Congress a proposal outlining a scheme for saving Palestinian lands from the Zionists by creating endowments on the coveted land...

The proposed Islamic University of Jerusalem was not conceived as a positive way for Palestinian Arab youth to improve themselves, but as a way to counter Jewish progress.

As with Palestinian nationalism itself, it wasn't pro-Palestinian. It was anti-Jew.

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In 1940, American Jews were urged to purchase land in Eretz Israel despite antisemitic British restrictions

The most infamous section of the 1939 British White Paper was the part that severely restricted the ability of Jews to immigrate to Palestine - on the eve of the Holocaust.

Not as well known is that the White Paper also prohibited or restricted Jews from purchasing lands from Arabs for much of the area of the Mandate:

The Administration of Palestine is required, under Article 6 of the Mandate, "while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced," to encourage "close settlement by Jews on the land," and no restriction has been imposed hitherto on the transfer of land from Arabs to Jews. The Reports of several expert Commissions have indicated that, owing to the natural growth of the Arab population and the steady sale in recent years of Arab land to Jews, there is now in certain areas no room for further transfers of Arab land, whilst in some other areas such transfers of land must be restricted if Arab cultivators are to maintain their existing standard of life and a considerable landless Arab population is not soon to be created. In these circumstances, the High Commissioner will be given general powers to prohibit and regulate transfers of land.

This was official antisemitism.

In 1940, the specifics of what land was allowed to be sold was first published, as described by the 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry:

[The] Land Transfers Regulations, published on 28th February, 1940, divided Palestine into three zones.

In Zone A, consisting of about 63 percent of the country including the stony hills, land transfers save to a Palestinian Arab were in general forbidden. In Zone B. consisting of about 32 percent of the country, transfers from a Palestinian Arab save to another Palestinian Arab were severely restricted at the discretion of the High Commissioner. In the remainder of Palestine, consisting of about five percent of the country-which, however, includes the most fertile areas- land sales remained unrestricted.

Here is a map, published in American Jewish newspapers shortly afterwards, showing the different zones as best understood at the time.

It appears that the map is wildly inaccurate - and hugely optimistic. The white areas where there should be unrestricted ability for Jews to purchase land is shown as far more than the 5% that the Anglo-American Commission determined, and Zone A forbidden for Jews to purchase as shown is far less than 63% of the entire land.

The real map shows that Jews could only purchase (without restriction) within the red-bordered areas, nearly all along the Mediterranean coast plus Jerusalem:

But while the Jews reacted negatively to this official discrimination against Jews by Great Britain, the Zionist leaders used this map as incentive to get American Jews to purchase land in Palestine, saying there was plenty of land available to legally buy:

The above map of Palestine, tentatively drawn, is based upon an unofficial analysis of the Palestine land edict which divides the country into three zones for the purpose of land purchase. The tentative map gives an inkling into the meaning of the message cabled to Dr. Israel Goldstein, President of the Jewish National Fund, by Menahem Ussishkin, World President of the Keren Kayemeth in Jerusalem, that "Large opportunities for land buying (in Palestine) are still available."

The free zone embraces, including the land holdings already in Jewish possession, an area of approximately 7,000,000 dunams exclusive of the Negeb. Final clarification of the limits of the respective zones is awaited.

"Do not despair," Mr. Ussishkin declared in his message. "We will persist in our opposition with all means at our disposal to the new policy threatening to convert our Homeland into a ghetto. Large opportunities for buying land are still available." He is confident that American Jewry, center of Jewish hope, will rise to occasion and assist the Jewish Agency in its political struggle and the Keren Kayemeth in its practical work to win the struggle.

Even in the face of these immoral and bigoted restrictions, the Zionist leaders wanted to redouble the chance for legally purchasing what little land they still could.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

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Bahrain Shiite preacher: Selling land to Jews should be illegal

Al Ahed News (Lebanon) reports that Shiite Sheikh Muhammad Sanqour, the Friday preacher at the Imam al-Sadiq Mosque in Diraz, Bahrain, today called on the government to ban all sales of real estate to Jews.

He claimed that "usurping Jews" are making handsome financial offers for Bahraini real estate, and called on the government of Bahrain "to reassure people by issuing a law that categorically prohibits owners from selling any of their property and assets to Jews, individuals or entities, directly or through an intermediary."

Sanquor added, "Selling something of real estate, even if it is easy for the likes of these usurpers, is tantamount to selling the homeland."

He continued, "These people do not coexist with anyone. The first of their victims is the one who did them a favor.”

And then: “We call for the state to have the right to annul any contract that was concluded or is to be concluded if one of its parties was Jewish."

Sounds like Jew-hatred to me.

In September, another Shiite cleric in Bahrain, Ayatollah Qassem, made a similar demand:

Dear people of Bahrain,
Do not hand over to the Jews even a small piece of land or a small house; By this, you are selling to them your religion, your history, your homeland, your present and your future. Be aware that you are committing suicide – materially and morally.

Today, Bahrain is an Islamic country
Tomorrow, according to the plan of Judaisation, it will become a country of Jews and Muslims. The day after tomorrow, it will become a country of Jews and Muslim residents – at the disposal. After that, the Muslims will be expelled. The beginning [O dear people of Bahrain] is the purchase of your land and the land of your Muslim brother.

Whoever sells land or a house to the Jews is not selling soil and stone, but rather a homeland, people, nation, history and dear sanctities. He is selling Islam as if it is not worth anything.

The government of Bahrain has not had a great relationship with Sanquor. It closed down his mosque briefly in 2016 and detained him.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

British Library and Hill Museum restoring writings of early 20th century Gaza antisemitic cleric

Al Jazeera writes about a project funded by the British Library and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library to restore a volume of fatwas by Sheikh Othman al-Tabbaa, of Gaza, written in 1904.

The article features this fatwa by the sheikh not to sell land to Jews:

About 118 years ago, Sheikh Othman al-Tabbaa, one of the notables of the city of Gaza, issued a fatwa prohibiting “selling lands to Jews directly or through traitorous brokers, because it weakens the physical and moral strength of Muslims and strengthens the enemies of the nation and the homeland, (especially) when it appears that their intention is to exterminate patriots as a whole, and to take over their countries and homelands by various means, just as it is not permissible to support or support them.”

And the Jews referred to, according to the fatwa of Sheikh al-Tabbaa, “were not people of dhimma, security, and they had no covenant from the caliph of the Muslims, but rather they were deviants and vagabonds from the horizons, so it is not permissible to empower them from the homes of Muslims and sell them lands whose price was the blood of the mujahideen heroes, as well as the prohibition of brokering and mediating in selling to them, Rather, it appeared that the harm of the brokers is more severe than the harm of the Jews themselves, because they guide them to every path that will help them reach their goals and facilitate obstacles for them.

Al-Tabbaa supported his fatwa with what was established in the books of the four schools of thought that “it is forbidden to sell to the people of war and sedition that which strengthens them in war, such as weapons and horses, and it is not carried to them even after reconciliation, and selling land and mediating in it to them is more severe and harmful than selling weapons and horses, and whoever does not adhere to his religion and act according to his orders. He avoids his prohibitions and pretends to commit what is prohibited by Sharia, so he is an avowed immoral person who must be insulted and boycotted.”

Al Jazeera is positioning this sheikh as a hero, who saw the danger of the Jews early and sounded the alarm not to sell land to the "deviants and vagabonds" who were Jews.

The manuscript should be preserved, because it is a very nice example of Muslim Jew-hatred from the early 20th century. I'm not so certain that this is what the British Library and HMMI have in mind, though, when they spend money to preserve it. I think they just think that this was an important scholar whose words should continue to be studied.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Jordanian Bar Association to ban lawyers who help sell Jerusalem land to Jews

According to Quds Press, the preacher of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, signed an agreement with the Jordanian Bar Association on Sunday for them to help prevent sale of Jerusalem land to Jews.

Sources say the Jordanian Bar Association will announce a package of decisions including punishing any lawyer found to be involved in selling Palestinian property and lands to Jews, with penalties including dismissal and expulsion from the association and preventing them from practicing law altogether.

The JBA will announce details within days.

Yes, the Quds Press article says "Jews."

I was curious if the bar association mentions Jews elsewhere on its website. I found that in 2017, they sponsored a talk about a book called "Bait Al-Maqdis and the Foundations of the Final Battle with the Jews, a Quranic Study."

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!