Major conflict over Islamic property in Jerusalem
Palestine-Israel, Judicial, 3/9/1998

It all started like any normal case brought to a court room. A Palestinian from Jerusalem who donated part of his property to the Islamic Waqf (endowment) in 1981 decided to retrieve that property though under Islam such a move is totally illegal.

"You cannot have people granting their property to the Islamic Waqf and then demanding that property back because this causes a huge mess and chaos and kills the spirit and sense of granting property for religious communities," said Jamal Abu Toameh, the Islamic Waqf lawyer who hopes a settlement can be reached between the two parties before the court issues its final verdict.

Abu Toameh was referring to the suit filed with the Israeli district court by Isaac Aref Farhan Khatib to regain a property he donated to the Islamic Awqaf back in 1981. Three months ago, Khatib decided to claim his property back. He sent his son, Daoud, to live inside the house but was told by the Awqaf council that such a step is illegal according to Islamic religious rulings.

Talks continued between Khatib and representatives of the Awqaf in order to find a way out of the crisis but Khatib insisted on going to the Israeli courts. Sheikh Hassan Tahboub, minister of religious affairs and Islamic Waqf in the Palestinian government, said that the Waqf and the Khatib family ³had reached an agreement to settle the dispute internally."

Unfortunately, the family did not comply. This case is very serious; it opens the door in front of many problems in which we might lose several Waqf lands and real estate.² He added that "it is not only condemnable for Muslims to appeal to Israeli courts against the Islamic Waqf but it is also a very serious phenomenon that should by brought to a halt at once." He stated that the real estate under question in the Mount Scopus area in East Jerusalem had already been documented as part of the Islamic Waqf by the religious courts both in Jerusalem and in Jaffa. Tahboub expressed regret for the step taken by the Khatib family which took the issue to the Israeli courts because "they have given those courts the right to interfere in cases between the Islamic Waqf and the Palestinian Muslim citizens of Jerusalem."

The Israeli district court last week issued a preliminary decision allowing itself the right to review and issue verdicts in cases pertinent to Islamic Waqf property in Palestine. In general, Palestinians said the decision, regardless of all the side factors that brought the case before the court, would create legal precedent which will in the future allow the Israeli government the right to take over Islamic Waqf property in Palestine.

But from a legal point of view, the Islamic Waqf argue that their exclusive right to handle court cases on their own property is based on Article 52 of the British Mandatory Regulations of 1922 and Article 7 of the Civil Regulations of Islamic Sharia (Religious) Courts of 1933. The Israeli courts since 1967 have refrained from interfering in cases involving the Islamic Waqf in Palestine and the recent preliminary decision taken by the district court threatens to set a new legal precedent that would allow Israel in the future to take over Islamic property in Palestine.

The Islamic Awqaf (Endowment) Council in Jerusalem warned that the latest Israeli measures in the city are meant to take over Islamic property not only in Jerusalem but all over Palestine. The Council met on Sunday and since then considered itself in constant session to follow up the developments on this case. The council warned that if Israeli civil courts are given the right to discuss and issue verdicts in cases relevant to Islamic property which has been and should remain within the Islamic religious court system, then "the whole Islamic and Christian endowment properties in Palestine will face the danger of being confiscated and taken over by Israel."

Adnan Husseini, the director of the Islamic Awqaf in Jerusalem, said that going to Israeli courts in this kind of a case is "just like walking into a dark tunnel. Nobody can tell what is waiting for him at the other end." He said that the main concern is the fact that Israeli courts are now giving themselves the right to issue their rulings in cases that were dealt exclusively by the Islamic religious courts.

When Khatib donated his land, said Husseini, he obtained a religious ruling ratifying his move from the Islamic religious court (Sharia') in East Jerusalem and later from the Jaffa religious court which backed the Jerusalem court decision. "What we are facing today," said Husseini, "is not only a case of a certain property in East Jerusalem but a lead to a large scale campaign by Israel to take over Islamic properties all over Palestine and not only in Jerusalem."

He said a legal precedent set by the Israeli district court will serve the Israeli authorities in the future to claim the right to take over properties that fall within the religious endowment, whether it is Islamic or Christian." "This decision is very grave to Muslims all over the world. It shows there is a deliberate campaign aimed at taking over Islamic property in Palestine and it coincides with the Israeli attempts to appropriate Islamic properties in Jerusalem," said Husseini.

Palestinians estimate that at least 90 percent of property within the wall of the Old City of Jerusalem is registered religious endowment, Islamic and Christian. Should the Israeli court go ahead with its decision, most of this property will become vulnerable to arbitrary decisions issued by the Israeli authorities to take over this property.

The Israeli district court, however, is due to meet Wednesday as intensive attempts continued to mediate between the Islamic Waqf and the Khatib family and to cancel the appeal the family presented to the Israeli District Court against the Waqf. Reliable sources said that notables and leading figures from Jerusalem and the Palestinian government met with the Waqf lawyer, Jamal Abu Toameh, and discussed with him means to settle the dispute after they had met with representatives of the Khatib family. The court had lately ruled it is her right to look into disputes pertaining to Islamic Waqf properties in Jerusalem, a decision that caused a wave of angry reactions among Palestinians who saw in such a verdict as a flagrant interference by the Israeli judicial system in purely Islamic issues.

Sources said that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat personally had intervened and summoned to his office in Ramallah representatives of both sides in order to see what means could be done to contain the dispute that erupted when Isaac Farhan Khatib Kanani of East Jerusalem sold his two out of five shares of a real estate and an adjacent piece of land in the area of Mount Scopus in East Jerusalem to relatives though he had already donated that same plot to the Islamic Waqf more than 18 years ago.

Waqf sources said Khatib's relatives entered the premises by force and refused to vacate it despite lots of contacts that were conducted with him and with his relatives. Khatib's Jewish lawyer, Maron Saror, claimed it was the Waqf that first decided to go to court and demand the eviction of his client and that Khatib had to defend himself and his interests before the District court. Waqf's lawyer Abu Toameh said Saror was distorting the facts and said it is well known that the Waqf went to court to defend property against someone who breached the law and sold a property that is owned by the Islamic Waqf, referring to Khatib. Abu Toameh, however, said he would rather not go into more details preferring to give a chance to solve this dispute out of the court room.

Sheikh Abdul Athim Salhab, head of the Islamic Waqf Council, said the publication of the case in local newspapers has caused many Palestinians to contact the Council and inquire about the case and about the identity of the family. He said that approximately 17 percent of Palestine is in the form of lands and real estate belonging to the Waqf and noted that Israel may try to take over the bulk of this property and real estate by means of interfering in domestic disputes.

Sheikh Salhab stressed that Isaac Khatib Kanani has filed several cases recently, denying the existence and the legal authority of the Islamic Waqf.

Israeli courts, said Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri who is the mufti of Jerusalem and the Holy Lands, have no right to look into cases relevant to the Islamic Waqf. "The Islamic Supreme Council of Fatwa (religious decree) has issued a decree pertaining to a piece of land belonging to the Islamic Waqf. Canceling a grant to the Islamic Waqf from a religious perspective is against the code of Islam and endangers Islamic Waqf's properties. Decrees by Israel are not applied to us since Jerusalem is part of the Waqf lands," said Sheikh Sabri.

He said the Islamic Waqf and the Supreme Council of Fatwa will adopt appropriate measures to stop the phenomenon of Muslims appealing to Israeli courts for solving disputes with the Waqf. "In the meantime," he said, "we call upon all our people and mainly those in Jerusalem and upon all organizations and national institutions in the city to unite and undermine those attempts by certain elements who go to Israeli courts. They should even try to pressure them into not going to Israeli courts and into finding a way to settle those differences with the Waqf internally and not through the Israeli courts." Sheikh Sabri recalled a decree issued by the Council some time ago calling for those people who appeal to Israeli courts against the Waqf to be boycotted and excommunicated from their community.

Previous Stories:
  Hamas: Israel trying to distort martyrdom concept   (3/4/1998)
  Pay your debts before entering Israel   (2/13/1998)
  Houses still await demolition   (12/9/1997)

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