The family of Arafat is talking about land occupied by the occupation in Jerusalem

Mervat Sadiq-Ramallah

The family of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has spoken of a piece of land the occupation seeks to seize and hand over to settlers claiming to have been affected by Palestinian attacks.

Nasser al-Kidwa, the son of Arafat's sister, denied the late president's ownership of a Jerusalem land that the Israeli occupation had temporarily ordered, at the request of families of Israeli settlers killed in Palestinian attacks, and accused the authority and its late leader of being behind them.

The Israeli central court in Jerusalem decided on Tuesday to issue a temporary restraining order on the plot of 2.7 dunums (1,000 square meters) of land in the Ras al-Amud area near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in central Jerusalem.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the order was issued on the land of Arafat's relatives at the request of Israeli families killed in Palestinian guerrilla operations, and has already filed a lawsuit against the Palestinian Authority and the legacy of Arafat, demanding compensation.

Important site
The claimants claim that even if they win, it will be difficult to collect compensation from Arafat's legacy, and therefore his land must be seized.

The application was filed by eight Israeli families. "Arafat did not enjoy a lot of public property. In contrast to the ordinary citizen whose property can be disclosed through official records, the defendant's property is not registered in open documents and can be in the Palestinian Authority's data, Prosecutors can access and detain. "

Al-Kidwa said during a press conference held in Ramallah today that the target land occupies an important position in Jerusalem, but it is owned by the family of Abu al-Saud, and Yasser Arafat and his brothers inherited from their mother Zahwa Abu al-Saud a very small part.

Al-Kidwa does not have a specific estimate of what Arafat and his brothers inherited, but he said it does not exceed 0.5% to 1.5% of the seized land. He said that the family did not make an inventory of the inheritance to determine the ownership of the heirs because of the reality of the occupation, so officially remained the property of the family of Abu Saud.

It is estimated that Arafat and his brothers inherited about 135 meters of this land, and Arafat had the right to own part of this area only, but he did not register officially.

"It is clear that the talk that was said about Arafat's many properties is not true," al-Kidwa told Al-Jazeera Net.

Al-Kidwa said that the decision of the Israeli court denounces Feltan and did not pay attention to the legal property, since Yasser Arafat personally does not have any serious ownership in this piece. "Even if it is all for him, this verdict is an example of the bandit mentality that governs Israeli institutions," he said.

He said that there is a problem in the essence of these claims and accusations, wondering: How to blame the Palestinian Authority for "casualties" during attacks were not involved, but the officials against them, and tried to stop?

Some 120 Israeli lawsuits have been filed against the Palestinian Authority, accusing it of responsibility for commando operations, most of which were carried out during the 2000-2000 intifada and before the departure of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Al-Kidwa referred to several similar cases raised by Israeli citizens of US nationality before the American judiciary.

"These actions are retaliation and have no real legal basis, and the exit of the executor from the territories of the Palestinian Authority does not make it responsible for his work," Palestinian Authority representative Yossi Arnon told Haaretz.

With regard to cases in the United States, Al-Kidwa criticized the service of many US citizens in the Israeli army and their participation in grave violations of Palestinians in violation of international law.

Pursuing America
In this context, Al-Kidwa referred to the previous American court's decision in response to these claims that he has no jurisdiction over the Palestinian Authority.

However, the US Congress recently decided to issue a new law under the title "Clarifying the fight against terrorism", which is in contrast to the 1997 "anti-terrorism" law that affects the PLO.

Under the new law, any entity is subject to US jurisdiction if it receives any assistance from the United States. Because of this legal amendment, al-Kidwa said the Palestinian Authority had recently refrained from accepting US financial aid.

"As a people and Palestinian officials, we do not reject foreign aid, but the new law is a hostile measure that seeks to subjugate us to the American judiciary, which will drag various Palestinian bodies and personalities into arrest and prosecution," he said.