Beit HaShalom – the House of Peace

Joe Settler is one of my regular reads for a variety of reasons. Joe posted one of the most coherent comment policy statements ever blogged. I don’t comment at Joe’s blog because I have only read 10 out of the 16 required areas of study; and to be honest rather than modest - I only have a rudimentary understanding of some of those 10. But at least I do know who Rabbi Chaim Zimmerman was (unlike another lurker who dared to comment). I will leave it to your imagination which combination of 6 I am ignorant of.

Anyway, I bring this up because Joe carries an update on a couple of posts I wrote about a few weeks ago concerning the purchase of a building and land in Hebron by the Jewish Community of Hebron.

For those link challenged with no short-term memory; two different Palestinian men each claimed to have separate sole title to the land/building; which they respectively accused the "settlers" of Hebron of stealing from them. I have to admit I feel a little odd writing the word “settlers” when referring to Jews in Hebron. I mean, for nearly 4 milleninums, Jews have lived continuously in Hebron (except for brief periods totally less than 350 years spread over nearly 3700 years). How many millenniums or generations have to pass before a settler (or their descendants) are no longer considered a bona fide settler?

Like most things in Israel, it was hard to figure out who was the alleged Palestinian land owner/victim. As far as I could tell, it really depended on which Israeli paper you read. Personally, I liked the guy from the Ynet/Jerusalem Post accounts. The guy had 4 wives and 33 children which was why he needed to build a home of approximately 37,500 square feet as - opposed to really bland character Ha’aretz’s picked.

At the time, I suggested that the underlying rationale for charges of land theft (by whoever was the former Arab landowner) had more to do with the former owner wanting to save his skin and keep the money from the sale. Let’s face it, a man with 4 wives and 33 children needs every penny he can lay his hands on.

The Jerusalem Post carries this brief update on the fate of the former Palestinian landowner:

Fatah-affiliated Palestinian Authority Preventive Security Forces on Thursday arrested a man who claimed ownership of the controversial house in Hebron, taken over by right-wing Jewish activists on March 19, on suspicion of selling the property to settlers.

Joe rightly asks where are the man’s supporters from the left-wing radical groups Peace Now and B'Tselem? No doubt the silence from these groups concerning this man’s fate will be positively deafening, but if ever a man needed a friend - this guy does. They still lynch in the Palestinian Authority.

Ha'aretz is reporting that the Jordian government has arrested another man in connection with this land sale:

One of the suspects is being held in Jordan, and the other in Jericho. PA laws call for a death sentence for anyone found guilty of selling land to Jews.

Hebron's Jewish Committee condemned the arrest, saying, "The arrest exposes once again the anti-Semitic nature of the PA. We call upon the government to accept the racial hatred prevalent in the PA." MK Uri Ariel (National Union-National Religious Party) called on the government to act for the release of the arrested Palestinians.

I would just like to point out that Jordanian law also calls for the death penalty for anyone convicted of selling land to a Jew - not an Israeli, but a Jew. So who is the Apartheid State now?