Mahmoud Abbas Makes the Same Old Demands, This Time of Nancy Pelosi

A report on the illuminating and yet predictable recent encounter between Mahmoud Abbas and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Ramallah is here: “Israeli-Palestinian talks will foster Arab ties, Saudi Prince Faisal says,” by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, February 18, 2022:

Israel must end its evictions of Palestinian families in east Jerusalem, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told US House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi when the two met in Ramallah.

It is not up to the government of Israel to interfere with the decisions of its courts regarding property disputes. These disputes have pitted Arab squatters, in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in east Jerusalem, who have no title to the land they have been living on, and the Jewish owners, who can show their title deeds to properties that were seized from them in 1948 by the Jordanians, and assigned to Arab families to live on. The titles remained with their Jewish owners who have since 1967 been going to court to assert their ownership. In one case, for example, where Arabs insisted that they “owned” the property in dispute, the Jews claiming ownership were able to show an unbroken chain of title that went all the way back to 1876. Arabs living on these properties have tried to claim ownership through such means as presenting forged Ottoman documents. In one case, the Arab families claimed that at some time in the distant past, a mysterious man named “Ismail” had sold it to them, though they had no evidence, not a single piece of paper, and did not even know “Ismail’s” last name. These property disputes have been wending their way through Israel’s judicial system and now, at last, many of them have been settled by the courts, which have decided so far in favor of the Jewish owners. Arab families have been offered compromises by the owners in several cases: the would be allowed to remain on the property as “protected tenants,” pay a modest rent, and be exempt from having to pay all the back rent due for the many years during which they lived on those properties rent-free. In every case, the Arabs have rejected these generous offers; as a consequence, they will be evicted.

Abbas spoke with Pelosi on Thursday [Feb. 17] about “finally putting an end to Israel’s expulsion of Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem,” according to the Palestine News Agency Wafa.

There have not been any “expulsions” of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. No Palestinian currently living in that neighborhood has been “expelled.” He, or she, or a family, is free to rent or buy a property in Sheikh Jarrah. What they are not permitted to do, just as Jews are not permitted to do, is to live on a property without paying rent to its owner, while claiming – falsely – to own that property. These property disputes in Sheikh Jarrah have taken many years to conclude, as Israeli courts have weighed the evidence for competing claims of ownership; once the courts deliver their judgements, as has now been happening sufficiently often to attract attention, the state will “evict” those who have been found to be squatting – that is, not paying rent – on land they do not own. They are not being told they must leave Sheikh Jarrah. They could, for example, move in with, and pay rent to, an Arab family living in the neighborhood. “Expulsion” and “eviction” are different things.

He similarly called for Israel to respect the “status quo” on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and for it put an end to settlement activity and settler violence.

Israel has no intention of disturbing the “status quo” on the Temple Mount. Jews will continue to be allowed to visit, but will still be prohibited from saying prayers aloud or even from silently mouthing them. That prohibition will, as always, be enforced by the Israeli police. The Palestinian agitators have been whipping people up with stories about the Jews intending to take over the Temple Mount and, in some versions of this tall tale, also intending to invade and take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Such tales are spread to foment an anti-Jewish frenzy among the local Arabs. It’s all nonsense, but many Arabs believe this stuff. Mahmoud Abbas knows better; he could have declared that “I know there will be no change in the status quo on Haram al-Sharif.” But he wants to cause trouble, and to sow doubts in Pelosi’s mind about Israeli intentions.

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