Palestinians prove fraud, regain land after decades
Palestinians often struggle for years to recover land that Israeli companies confiscated through forged documents.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The town of Biddya in the West Bank's Salfit governorate is building agricultural roads in mountainous areas to allow citizens to reach their newly reclaimed lands.
Construction began a few days after the landowners recovered over 190 dunams (over 47 acres) of land from Israeli company Yakir Investments, after lawyers from the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission proved in mid-May the company forged the title deeds.
Youssef Abu Safya, a member of the National Land Defense Commission in Salfit, told Al-Monitor the case dates back to 1982 when Yakir Investments, with the help of some Palestinian brokers and tribal leaders, forged the title deeds of hundreds of dunams in the town in Area C. The landowners — who reside in the West Bank — started to pursue the case with Palestinian lawyers and rights’ groups, appearing before Israeli committees. When the Palestinian Authority (PA) was established in 1994, it took over the case and offered the complainants legal aid through the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, with which it is affiliated.
Abu Safya said lawyers Hussni Kalbona and Qusay Awad — both members of the commission — succeeded May 14 in getting a final decision from the Israeli Objections Committee, which is a military appeals committee based in the Israeli Ofer camp in the West Bank, to recover 74 dunams, and on May 16 to recover 116 more.
