“Fields will be bought, and deeds are written and sealed, and witnesses referred to as inside the land of Binyamin and within the environs of Yerushalayim, and in the cities of Yehuda; the towns of the hill us of the towns of the Shephelah, and the cities of the Negev. For I will restore their fortunes—pronounces Hashem.” Jeremiah 32: forty-four. Issam Akel was arrested in October 2018 with the aid of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and tortured for selling his property in Jerusalem to Jews, against the law that includes the death penalty according to PA law.
Fortunately, 55-year-old Akel befell to be a citizen of Israel and the U.S., a component that saved his existence in step with Ateret Cohanim, the NGO which facilitated the sale of his home in Jerusalem’s Old City. The full story of Akel’s imprisonment and the efforts to launch him have been advised for the primary time by using Ateret Cohanim government director Daniel Luria in an exceptional interview with Breaking Israel News. “It’s only now that I am inclined to talk about our role inside the saga,” Luria defined. “The topic is touchy due to the fact even though Akel is now within the U.S.; there may nevertheless be elements that would need to damage him. There are dire ramifications for different center-guys, beyond, present and destiny.”
The tale begins in the context of internecine warfare between Palestinian factions inside Jerusalem’s Old City: Supporters of PA’s President Mahmoud Abbas and supporters of Mohammad Dahlan who staunchly adverse the guideline of the PA. Followers of Dahlan have been looking to acquire a huge construction near the Flower Gate (Herod’s Gate), and their efforts have been foiled with the aid of the PA. Due to this war among the Palestinians, Ateret Cohanim stepped in and helped Jewish entities gather the building, now known as Bet Gitta.
“This became Bet Gitta into a major problem for each Palestinian organization with every side looking to keep face through showing that they had been more militant in stopping the sale of land to Jews,” Luria explained to Breaking Israel News. “The PA came off searching worse so that they needed a way to shop face. Soon after, they found that any other building in the Old City close to the Flowers Gate had also been offered to Jewish worries.” When a Jewish proprietor acquired the assets, Ateret Cohanim devoted the construction in memory of Ari Fuld, murdered via a Palestinian terrorist. Before he changed into killed in September 2018, Fuld was energetic in supporting Ateret Cohanim gather homes inside the Old City.
“The PA accused Issam Akel of helping promote the assets,” Luria explained. “Initially, they were unaware that he changed into an American citizen. Palestinian Authority safety forces abducted and incarcerated Akel torturing him for several weeks. He turned entirely reduce off from the out of doors global. The strategies they used to torture him have been brutal, instantly out of the Middle Ages. His residence in Ramallah was ransacked. Eventually, he changed into tried and sentenced to lifestyles in prison with difficult exertions.” Foreign corporations found in Israel to document humanitarian abuses have been silent within the case of Akel.
“Why isn’t the UN, the EU, or the left-wing jumping up and right down to cancel these legal guidelines?” Luria asked rhetorically. “That is the hypocrisy. This must be on the pinnacle of the list for humanitarian agencies. Palestinians must be unfastened to promote their land if they pick. The remedy of these accused is awful. And it’s far absurd that during this point in time, it’s miles illegal for a Jew to purchase a particular property surely due to the fact he is a Jew. Especially in Israel.
The Palestinian regulation that forbids Palestinians from selling their assets to Israelis is vigorously enforced as every piece of property becomes a key detail within the war over Jerusalem. No one makes a fuss whilst Arabs buy property in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem or different regions of Israel. There is not any Israeli law preventing the sale of Jewish land to Arabs, and Jews are without a doubt now not tortured or killed for doing so.”