- by Graham Holton
- The Guardian
- Issue #2123
Protest against the illegal sale of stolen Palestinian land, New York, July 2024. Photo: workers.org / Brenda Ryan
Palestinian properties, seized in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, are being sold across the USA and Canada, in contravention of international laws. The New Jersey office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the sales, as did the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation.
CAIR-NY Supervising Attorney Lamya Agarwala said: “It is reprehensible that real estate companies are looking to profit from land in occupied Palestine as people are getting murdered and displaced from their homes in Gaza. The United States government and the international community have deemed Israeli settlements illegal, and New York State has a responsibility to ensure it is not complicit in further developing illegal settlements.”
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Chelsey Lichtman, a member of Jews Say No to Genocide, said it is “sacrilegious” that “synagogues are holding events that [are] trying to get Canadians to invest in stolen Palestinian land.”
Hundreds of Palestine supporters in New York City protested against the sale of land confiscated in the settlement of Ariel, near the West Bank city of Nablus. The US recently restored its position that these settlements are “inconsistent” with international law.
Rich Siegel said: “There’s a genocide going on … What this real estate event is going to do is it’s going to fan the flames.” The New Jersey chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and American Muslims for Palestine called for a federal investigation.
There are over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in 300 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. In April 2024 Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for Gaza to be “resettled” and the Palestinian population expelled. This contravenes the Geneva Conventions, the anti-discrimination provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of Race Discrimination applicable to the United States, and may constitute a war crime.
In July Israel’s Knesset voted overwhelmingly to reject the establishment of a Palestinian state. The next day the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ), in a landmark opinion said that the policies and practices used by Israel in its occupation of Palestinian territories are in breach of international law.
Judge Nawaf Salam said that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were established and maintained as “de facto annexation” in violation of international law. This is “in breach of the Israeli government’s obligation to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.” Benny Gantz, a former member of the Israeli war Cabinet, said the opinion “harms security and stability in the region.”
The Australian government allows the sale of weapons parts to Israel which are used in the genocide in Gaza, and remains silent when Israel breaks international law by selling seized Palestinian properties. We must stand up for Palestinians and ensure our government objects to Israel selling seized Palestinian properties in Israel and overseas.
