STATEMENTS BY SENIOR PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY OFFICIALS CONCERNING SALE OF LAND TO JEWS

Israel Government Press Office, Jerusalem, 21 May 1997

• Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat:
  "We are taking forceful steps against those who do this. Recently, a decision was passed to punish anyone who sells land, property or homes. We are keeping track of land dealers and punishing them." --- in an interview with a Lebanese newspaper
  (Al-Hawadath, May 16, 1997)

  "Our law is a Jordanian law that we inherited, which applies to both the West Bank and Gaza, and sets the death penalty for those who sell land to Israelis... We are talking about a few traitors, and we shall implement against them what is written in the law books. It is our right and our obligation to defend our land."
  --- in an interview with an Israeli newspaper (Yediot Ahronot, May 21, 1997)

• The Palestinian Authority Cabinet:
  The Palestinian leadership listened to a report regarding the fact that a number of land speculators have sold, via foreign intermediaries, Palestinian land to foreign companies, which are in fact Israeli companies working in the framework of the settlement plans being carried out by the Israeli government. The Palestinian leadership has decided to forbid the sale of land anywhere in Palestine either directly or via intermediaries. The leadership has empowered the legal authorities and security forces to implement the decision on this matter and to punish anyone who has sold land directly or has assisted in its sale. The sale of land constitutes the gravest danger concerning the Judaization of the Palestinian lands."
  --- in a cabinet decision passed at its weekly meeting in Ramallah on May 2-3, 1997 (Voice of Palestine, May 3, 1997)

• Palestinian Authority Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein:
  "This is a very dangerous act and there has been a decision to ban it by putting anyone who sells even a centimeter on swift trial and to seek the death penalty against them... These people are traitors and Israel exploits them in expanding its settlements."
  --- in an interview (Agence France Presse, May 5, 1997)

  "I warned the land dealers several times through the media not to play with fire. For us, whoever sells land to Jews and settlers is more dangerous than collaborators. Therefore, they must be put on trial and sentenced to death... they are traitors."
  --- in an interview with an Israeli newspaper (Yediot Ahronot, May 20, 1997)

  "Expect the unexpected... nobody from this moment will accept any traitor who sells his land to Israelis."
  --- cited in The Washington Post, May 20, 1997

• Palestinian Authority Mufti Ikrama Sabri:
  "Whoever is found to have sold land to Jews, his punishment is death. It is forbidden to pray for him, it is forbidden to purify his body before burial, and it is forbidden to bury him in a Muslim cemetery. We are obligated to remind the public of this religious law, so as not to allow Jews to purchase Arab land and property with dollars they receive from America in order to throw us out of this land."
  --- in an interview with an Israeli newspaper (Yediot Ahronot, May 20, 1997)

  "The Zionist entity exists on seized land. The Jews remain enemies because they expropriate lands, build settlements and pay high sums to buy properties. They are the greatest enemies of us Muslims."
  --- in a newspaper interview (The New York Times, May 18, 1997)

  "We condemn this abhorrent crime and emphasize that despite all the conspiracies, Jerusalem and Palestine from the river to the sea will remain Islamic until judgment day... A land speculator for the Jews, in whose birth certificate it states that he is a Muslim, was killed. There is a possibility that his body will be brought to Al-Aksa mosque or another mosque. We wish to remind you that Islamic law forbids the washing and wrapping in shrouds of his body and forbids praying for his soul or burying him in a Muslim cemetery. We call upon you to beware. This should serve as a lesson to all traitors and speculators who collaborate with the Jews."
  --- in his weekly sermon at Al-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount (Voice of Palestine, May 9, 1997)