The State of Israel procrastinates and does not determine sovereignty facts on the ground. On the other side, there are Arab sales offering land and real estate in Area B to anyone, as long as he is an Arab.
Below are excerpts from the reporting of Itamar Mor as they were published in the Olam Katan (Small World) Newsletter, revealing how, in the absence of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, lands are being sold by Arab entrepreneurs to anyone who is interested, except to Jews:
A brief stroll through the internet site of the Palestinian real estate company “Tabu”, brings you, for a moment, into a parallel universe; a universe where there is no housing shortage. At Tabu, you can buy a cottage of 100 sq. m. on a plot of 1 dunam of land a half hour from Jerusalem at the price of a one-room apartment in Be’er Sheva. But only if you are Palestinian. The site is bright and colorful and offers you a short and efficient procedure: Choose your house from one of the company’s three projects; choose the model of the house and the level of environmental development, and the only thing left is to pay. In return, you are guaranteed “high construction standards and a promise regular registration and ownership of the land in the State of Palestine’s Land Registry Authority”.
Even Palestinians living abroad can take part in the “Land Redemption” enterprise. “Buy your land in Palestine today”, declares the site’s headline in English. “A dunam of land at a reasonable price, official registration and infrastructure, and all starting from 430 dollars per month [a sort of 25-year mortgage]. “If anyone thinks that this is just about “affordable housing”, the company takes pains to clarify in the site, beyond any doubt, the true purpose of the projects that it is marketing.
Under the tab “Contact us”, the site cites favorable international news coverage explaining supportively that “Tabu” is much more than a real estate venture. “The goal of the project is to determine facts on the ground by establishing Palestinian communities before Israel builds its communities”, as is written in Forbes, the American journal. “The Palestinians can achieve three goals with these projects: To make a political statement, improve the housing conditions and acquire rental property in the West Bank”, states the news site, Reuters. The company’s Facebook page elucidates even more clearly, clarifying the overall goal beyond any doubt: “Defending Palestinian land from being stolen illegally”.
There is a reason that Tabu chooses to establish the projects only in Area B, which is located under the joint control of Israel and the PA. Palestinian building does not require Israel’s approval, since it is not related to security. This is how facts on the ground are determined. They are, supposedly, backed up by official registration in the Palestinian Lands Authority, taking over land and preventing territorial contiguity between the Israeli communities. Thus, for example, one of Tabu’s projects is right next to the community of Amihai in Gush Shiloh, severely harming the residents’ sense of security. The new Palestinian community that was established in Amihai’s back yard touches the community’s demarcation line. Palestinian development includes high quality roads and infrastructure that one rarely sees in Arab villages, spreading out over the area, suffocating the Israeli community and preventing the possibility of future expansion and contiguity with other Jewish communities.
The person behind the Tabu projects is Khaled Sabawi, a Canadian businessman of Palestinian descent, whose family was exiled in the War of Independence from the village of Selma, north of Jaffa.
After wandering in several countries throughout the world, the family settled in Canada and became a real estate empire. After the Oslo Accords, Sabawi the elder, who established the company, began to invest in Judea, Samaria and Gaza as well. Khaled the son, who inherited the business, began in the past decade, to establish many projects in the territory of the PA, some of which are considered to be prestigious. Tabu is a “popular” project from the point of view of pricing and the target market. But since it is all connected to nationalist ideology, it is no wonder that Sabawi has become a sort of Palestinian Rothschild. And indeed, the way he expresses himself shows that nationalism and “securing lands for the Palestinian people” interest him no less than money. It seems that many Palestinians living abroad are investing in Sabawi’s projects for ideological reasons. The acquisition, which allows for registration in the Palestinian Lands Authority, supposedly turns these lands, whose status is unclear, into private Palestinian ownership.
So, in a kind of slow creep, Sabawi manages to transfer territory in Judea and Samaria under joint control, which currently do not have a clear status, from the point of view of ownership, to private ownership. Also, the choice of the area where the projects are located is not random. There is a clear preference for units of land between Jewish communities, such as the area of the communities in Gush Shiloh. Sabawi’s idea is to break up the continuum and to make it difficult to expand the settlements. And indeed, Sabawi, who has been interviewed several times in the past for Haaretz, said explicitly that the main goal of his investments is “to defend the private, unregistered land from the danger of being taken over by Israel”.
Ido Meushar, Head of the Eli Community Committee, who is deeply familiar with the subject and has been following the activity of Tabu for some time, is disturbed by the security ramifications, but mainly because state assets are being taken without anyone saying a word. “Besides the physical proximity to the Jewish communities, this presents a danger in and of itself; there is a much bigger problem here as a matter of principle”, he says. “It would be possible to solve the security problem locally, by the order of the commanding officer to stop the work, since it is in Area B, where there is joint security control between the PA and the IDF. But the larger problem is the loss of open lands. The Palestinians can currently build as much as they like and however they like in Area A, but they insist on expanding into Area B, and you don’t have to be a genius to understand why. It is a creeping takeover in the style of the [Jewish] “Wall and Tower” movement, to determine facts on the ground and they are doing it because they understand that this will have great significance, even perhaps in the near future”.
Another individual involved in following the activities of Tabu, who requests to remain anonymous, says that the PA understands that both the settlement and the security situation will cause Israel, sooner or later, to declare her intention to apply Israeli law in Judea and Samaria, either by full or partial annexation. The creeping takeover is done in an effort to determine facts on the ground before the day that that fateful day.
“This is a historic era of important decision. The Israeli still have not internalized this but the Palestinians have already read the map”, says this individual. “The PA sees that the Americans recognize Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and Netanyahu’s declarations about annexing the Jordan Valley, and they understand that it is only a matter of time. They said that the American recognition of Jerusalem would start a war in the Middle East – and here we are. The dogs are barking a bit but, in the end, the caravan passes. The Palestinians see this and understand that the declaration of annexation will also not undermine the stability. The only thing that still prevents this step from happening is the Israeli fear of the consequences. They are using this period of hesitation to determine facts on the ground and to increase the extent of private land holdings, and they are doing it very wisely and efficiently.
“Sabawi understands that his way is much more effective than any act of terror or attack: expanding, choking off the Jewish settlements with Palestinian nooses and breaking the continuum of communities while preventing the possibility of creating blocs of settlement – this is their settlement enterprise”.
“Khaled Sabawi is the architect of Salam Fiyyad, who was the Palestinian prime minister and who wrote the Palestinian Roots Plan, which speaks of connecting the Palestinian villages with infrastructures, construction and agricultural areas. This is how they determine facts on the ground and create territorial continuity. Between Migdalim, which is east of Tapuah Junction and Esh Kodesh, which is near Shiloh, there is one and a half kilometers which can be paved to create a continuity. This is not being done and the two communities remain isolated. The Palestinians took note of the situation and now they are building wildly, in exactly this area. They could have built in the same manner in other places much closer to their communities but the location was not randomly chosen. They are doing all of this under the auspices of the law since it is in Area B, where Israel cannot enforce laws of construction on Palestinians. Many red lights should have been lit but for some reason the upper echelon is still ignoring it”.