Israel gave settlers land deals in east Jerusalem

The Israeli government sold or leased property in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem to Israeli settlers at exceptionally low prices, helping them cement a Jewish presence there, court documents published on Sunday show. The documents are the first to show how easily settlers were able to put down stakes in these areas with the help of successive Israeli governments. In one case, a 3,660-square-foot building in east Jerusalem's walled Old City was sold in October 2006 for $190,000–a fraction of its market price. The Arab neighborhoods are part of east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War and claimed by the Palestinians as a future capital. Expanding Israeli enclaves in these neighborhoods would make a partition of Jerusalem along ethnic lines as part of any peace deal exceedingly difficult. The documents were released to anti-settlement activists who sought a comprehensive accounting of the government's deals with two settler groups, Elad and Ateret Cohanim. The documents refer to 11 properties. But activist Dror Etkes says the state is withholding information on other deals because nearly two decades ago, a government-appointed commission identified 68 land transactions involving the state and the two settler groups.