PA: Tougher penalties for selling to Israelis

Palestinians who do real estate deals with “hostile countries” will face tougher penalties.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas announced the tougher stance on Tuesday morning (Australian time).

Abbas’s decision came following reports that Palestinians have sold houses in Jerusalem’s Silwan neighbourhood to Jews.

On Tuesday morning, Jewish families moved into two more residences in Silwan that were reportedly purchased through a Palestinian mediator.

In his order, Abbas decided to amend the Palestinian penal code so that it would include hard labor in addition to life imprisonment for Palestinians who sell, rent out or serve as mediators in real estate transactions with “hostile countries” and their citizens.

In 2010, a PA court reaffirmed that the sale of Palestinian land to Israelis is punishable by death.

Although the death sentence has not been officially executed, several Palestinians have been murdered in east Jerusalem and the West Bank over the past four decades after being accused of involvement in property transactions with Jews.

JERUSALEM POST