Palestinians say the Israeli courts are an untrustworthy authority in determining the rightful owners of property in western Jerusalem, which they claim belongs to Palestinians.
Nevertheless, several Palestinians are collecting data on property in the mostly Jewish part of the city in a bid to regain by legal means what they believe is rightfully theirs.
“We don’t trust the Israeli courts,” Adnan Husseini, the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem told The Media Line, “because judging from our practice or experience, they don’t give any rights to the Palestinians.”
However, Husseini added that the case would be put through the Israeli justice system in any case.
“We have to open the files. It will be very important to put the [Israeli] courts and the government in a corner, so they will understand the realities. Without this, they’re not using any logic to understand the realities on the ground, they are just doing whatever they want.”
The status of Jerusalem is one of the main sticking points in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Husseini said Israelis needed to understand that when they seek ownership for property in eastern Jerusalem, Arabs would follow the same path in western Jerusalem, “until finally they will know their policy has failed.”
Husseini is helping a committee, which is comprised of people who claim to have previously owned houses in western Jerusalem.
“It’s a civil committee of people who lost their property and started to feel they had to follow their cases,” he said.
“Many people we met told us they had many documents. We started to check some of these papers. We know that in the land department many changes were made by the Israelis. We know we’ll run into obstacles in this, but I believe the papers from the people will be very helpful.”
If the Israeli courts fail to recognize their rights, Husseini said he would take the case to the international courts.
Israeli governmental offices, it seems are not losing their cool over the new Palestinian initiative, which aims to expel Jewish owners from their homes.
The Israeli Justice Ministry, which is responsible for the office of Land Settlement Registration, said there was no reason to respond, as long as the issue was still in the theoretical stages.
“This is a political matter, which requires a response from the Prime Minister’s Office or the Foreign Ministry,” the Justice Ministry said.
The Prime Minister’s Office said it was not handling the matter and would not comment.
Israeli officials contacted by The Media Line say the issue will only be examined if a legal process is put in motion.
The office of Jerusalem’s new mayor, Nir Barkat, said it was a legal issue that should be determined using legal tools “acceptable within the framework of the Israeli courts’ system.”
The municipality said it had not received any concrete material and added it would “not allow any attempt by any organizations in the political arena of the Palestinian Authority to impinge upon Israel’s sovereignty over united Jerusalem.”
An Israeli diplomatic source said Israel had nothing to be concerned about with regards to the initiative.
If the Palestinians pursue the issue in the Israeli legal system, it will be a victory
for Israel in that the Palestinians recognize Israeli law and Israel’s right to extend its ruling over this property, the source said.
As to the idea of referring the issue to an international court, the source said this would only be a purely propaganda move but would get them nowhere.
“No international body can rule about property right in the territory of a sovereign country,” he said.
This case could, however, cause a problem if property ownership issues in western Jerusalem were brought up during negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, he added.