RAMALLAH, Wednesday, January 23, 2019 (WAFA) – Nasser Kidwa, chairman of the Yasser Arafat Foundation, described on Wednesday an Israeli court‘s ruling against an estate in occupied East Jerusalem for the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as nothing more than pure robbery, accusing the Israeli occupation authorities of espousing the mentality of bandits.

Kidwa told a press conference at the foundation’s headquarters in Ramallah that the decision on Tuesday by the Israeli District Court in Jerusalem of temporary foreclosure on the plot of land a very small part of which was inherited by Arafat from his mother was based on lawsuits brought before the court against the Palestinian Authority and President Yasser Arafat in particular by relatives of Israelis affected by attacks by Palestinians.

"We are talking here about a 2.7-dunum (less than one acre) plot of land located in Ras al-Amoud neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, close to Haram al-Sharif (Al-Aqsa Mosque), and near the Panorama Hotel. It is an important piece of land in the political sense and owned by the family of Abu al-Saud, from the mother’s side of Yasser Arafat,” he said, adding that “Yasser Arafat and his brothers inherited a small part of this land from their mother. We do not know the details (about the land in question) because a list of the heirs was never initiated (at a probate court) due to presence of the occupation, and the piece of land has been infringed on for a long time but this again was not pursued in courts because of the existence of the occupation.”

Kidwa described the Israeli court’s decision as “hooliganism,” and shows total disrespect to personal property of people. “This ruling is another example of the bandit mentality that governs Israeli institutions,” he said.

M.K.