It has emerged that the Palestinian land in the West Bank is being sold illegally to American far-right Jews by Jerusalem-based companies, violating several laws
Asad Mirza
THE 47th American President Donald Trump, in the first week of his second term, has issued various contentious executive orders and given his longwinded view on many international issues. One such issue is the rehabilitation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, after the recent ceasefire.
Trump said on Saturday (24 January) that “we just clean out that whole thing,” referring to Gaza and asking Jordan and Egypt to take Palestinians from Gaza.
Trump’s proposal to “clean out” the Gaza Strip by moving more than a million Palestinians to neighbouring countries has drawn sharp criticism, with opponents condemning it as ethnic cleansing and warning of regional chaos.
Apparently, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” The potential transfer, he said, “could be temporary” or “could be long-term.”
The proposal marks a sharp break from Joe Biden and earlier American administration’s stance that Gaza should not be depopulated, and this could signal a shift from a longstanding US position that Gaza should be part of a future Palestinian state. It would also align the Trump administration with Israel’s most radical far-right politicians, who advocate transferring Palestinians out of the territory to make way for Jewish settlements.
While there has been no response from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, the idea was applauded by far-right Israeli politicians.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who leads the Religious Zionism party, said Trump has recognised that Gaza was “a breeding ground for terror,” and “there is no doubt that in the long run, encouraging migration is the only solution that will bring peace and security to the residents of Israel and alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s Arab residents.”
Meanwhile, Egypt and Jordanian leaders have rejected Trump’s suggestion to take in Palestinians. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah have rejected any forced displacement of Palestinians, days after Trump’s suggestion.
“Regarding what is being said about the displacement of Palestinians, it can never be tolerated or allowed because of its impact on Egyptian national security,” el-Sisi said.
A statement issued by the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas, based in the West Bank, said, “We will not allow the repetition of the catastrophes that befell our people in 1948 and 1967.”
The former date is known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” which refers to the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel before and during the War of Independence in 1948, after the UN-proposed division of Mandatory Palestine was rejected by Arabs in Palestine and Arab states, who invaded Israel.
The 1967 war, during which Israel captured East Jerusalem including Muslim and Christian sites there, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights, saw further several hundred thousand more displaced from those territories, and is also referred to as Al Naksa, meaning “the setback.”
Abbas also rejected what he called “any policy that undermines the unity of the Palestinian land in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
Earlier, the UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice at The Hague in a July 2024 ruling had said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is against international law.
There have been reports that real estate firms based in Israel are selling land parcels and flats in the West Bank, urging investors to buy a piece of the Promised Land (apparently illegal). The majority of the buyers are far-right Orthodox Jews.
These events have been organised in many US cities, where the invitees are handpicked, based on their religious affiliation.
Journalist Marc Steiner in his podcast Not in Our Name on the US-based The Real News Network, invited Eleanor Goldfield, a creative activist and a journalist, to get more details about this new business.
According to Eleanor, the potential buyers are cherry-picked. She said: “Some folks were saying when they tried to register for the event, they had to do a Zoom call with the organiser and the organiser asked to see their bookcase to see if there were Jewish books on there. They demanded to know where they daven (where they pray), and who their rabbi was. And finally, only the far-right ultra-Orthodox Jews were invited to events in Baltimore, USA.”
Reportedly, these events have been held in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore and many other US states and cities, too.
Rich Segal, a resident of Teaneck, New Jersey told Al Jazeera’s Kevin Herten on his podcast The Take that he first became aware that there were such real estate events in Teaneck back in 2007 and he only became aware because he happened to be reading the Jewish newspapers, and saw this advertisement for a real estate event. He investigated the event a little bit and found out that the promoters were actually selling West Bank settlement homes directly to Jews in Teaneck, New Jersey.
Rich further said that he thought that this had to be illegal and certainly immoral, and he had to try to stop it, and he did. So that was the first time that he organised a demonstration. He tried to stop it in other ways too, made calls to everyone from the local police to the FBI and found out that absolutely nobody was interested in investigating this matter.
According to Rich recently, meaning after October 7, 2024, things boiled over in Teaneck, New Jersey, when he tried to organise demonstrations against these real estate shows after he and one of his colleagues were thrown out ceremoniously from one of them when they disclosed their identities. Rich himself is a Jew but says that only ultra-rightwing orthodox Jews are invited to these shows, confirming Eleanor’s observation, who too is a Jew. He said further that in Teaneck synagogues are hosting real estate fairs encouraging members to buy property in Israel and occupied West Bank settlements. They call it redemption of the land or coming back home.
According to Eleanor, groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, CARE, and PAL – the Palestinian Association for Liberation organised demonstrations against these shows, but to no avail.
Now, one just needs to link these two apparently unconnected but really intertwined issues. Trump is urging to get Gaza and the West Bank free of Palestinians, while at the same time, the Israeli companies are flouting a total of 22 international, American, and Israeli laws, selling the land in the West Bank to the orthodox and fanatic Jews, according to Rich.
Trump, as is commonly known is a property developer, he, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, own a large number of companies in Israel and ultimately, they and their band of followers will be the opportune gainers in this deal.
However, what is heartening is the fact that actions against these illegal activities are being organised by Jews themselves, particularly those who denounce Zionism, like Eleanor and Rich.
But at the same time what worries one is that this issue is missing from many Western news outlets, except some independent ones like, the Real News Network. What is needed is that more people report this and the media should highlight it, demanding a proper investigation into these murky illegal land deals. Moreover, the manner in which this idea has been floated by Trump and the clandestine sale of land in Israel may prove to be part of the old Israeli plan to create a Greater Israel.
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Asad Mirza is a New Delhi-based senior journalist and a media consultant. The views expressed here are the author’s personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them. He can be contacted at asad.mirza.nd@gmail.com