The Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service in Ramallah announced on Sunday that its agents had succeeded in thwarting the sale to Jews of 750 acres of land belonging to Arabs.
The lands in question were located in eastern Jerusalem, Ramallah, Shechem, Hebron, Qalqilya and Salfit.
The Preventive Security also warned local Arab land owners against selling land to Jews or suspicious elements who represent Jewish buyers.
44 PA Arabs have recently been arrested and accused of selling land to Jews.
The Palestinian Authority land laws prohibit Arab residents from selling their lands to “any man or judicial body corporation of Israeli citizenship, living in Israel or acting on its behalf,” in a flagrant violation of the civil rights of Jewish buyers.
Land sales to Israelis are considered treason by the PA and PA citizens who sell land to Israelis can be subject to the death penalty. When captured, suspects are tortured by the PA security service and kept behind bars for long periods of time without a trial.
In June 2012, Osama Hussein Mansour, a retired PA security officer, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority on charges of collaborating with Israel and being involved in land transactions with Israelis. He died in jail in July after “falling” from a window.
In 2014, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas issued an executive order that amended the land law penal code, increasing the penalties for selling land to “hostile countries and their citizens” to include hard labor to life imprisonment for PA Arabs who sell, rent or mediate real estate transactions