- JERUSALEM: The Israeli government sold or leased property in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem to occupiers at exceptionally low prices, helping them cement a Jewish presence there, court documents published Sunday show.
The documents are the first to show how easily occupiers were able to put down stakes in these areas with the help of successive Israeli governments. In one case, a 3,660-square-foot building in East Jerusalem's walled Old City was sold in October 2006 for $190,000 — a fraction of its market price.
The Arab neighborhoods are part of East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War and claimed by the Palestinians as a future capital. Expanding Israeli enclaves in these neighborhoods would make a partition of Jerusalem along ethnic lines as part of any peace deal exceedingly difficult.
The documents were released to anti-settlement activists who sought a comprehensive accounting of the government's deals with two groups of occupiers, Elad and Ateret Cohanim.
The documents refer to 11 properties. But activist Dror Etkes says the state is withholding information on other deals because nearly two decades ago, a government-appointed commission identified 68 land transactions involving the state and the two groups.
The government lands agency, which controls almost all land in Israel, refused to comment.
Details from the documents were first released by the Haaretz newspaper earlier in the day.
East Jerusalem is the most volatile issue dividing Israelis and Palestinians. Occupiers and their allies want Israel to retain control of the entire city, including the eastern sector captured from Jordan in 1967.
Jews have for decades sought to buy property in Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem on the assumption that doing so would make it more difficult for Mideast negotiators to hand those areas over to Palestinians.
All of the properties referred to in the court documents lie within East Jerusalem's walled Old City, home to sites sacred to Islam, Judaism and Christianity, and the adjacent Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan.
Silwan is a frequent flash point between Arabs and Jews because of the occupiers' aims to expand their presence there. An estimated 2,000 Jews live in traditionally Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.