No assets for terrorists

At a time when debate rages throughout the world as to whether or not to support the “Disengagement Plan” of the government of Israel,the time has come to address a seminal decision of the democratically elected government of Israel: No assets for terrorists.

The government of Israel, in its June 6th, 2004 decision to ratify the final version of the Disengagement Law, enacted a vital provision which forbids the government of Israel from handing over any confiscated Jewish assets to terrorists.

That provision, in clause seven, declares that Israel will transfer “facilities, including industrial, commercial and agricultural ones, to a third, international party which will put them to use for the benefit of the Palestinian population that is not involved in terror…. “

Despite that clear Israeli government decision, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has defied the law of his own government and has worked to transfer confiscated Jewish assets to the World Bank, and then to the Palestinians, in an arrangement that eliminates the words, “not involved in terror.” Indeed, in the June 2004 monograph signed by then-World Bank president James Wolfensohn and presented to Israel and the PLO entitled “Disengagement, Palestinian Economy and the Settlements,” all confiscated settlement assets are to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, without any prerequisite that those who receive the assets have not been involved in terrorism. The words, “not involved in terror”, simply do not appear. And in the brochure issued by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs on May 1st, 2005, the words, “not involved in terror”, simply do not appear.

On August 14th, 2005, the day before Israel’s hand over of land was about to commence, a headline in the Jerusalem Post indicated that the Palestinian Authority has invited armed terror militias from Lebanon to take up position in the abandoned settlements that Israel is about to cede.

All indications are that the Palestinian Authority would use any newly acquired strategic assets to mount a new war of terror against all of Israel.

No Israeli government decision was ever taken to hand over confiscated assets of Jews to their murderers.

Precisely the opposite was the case.

The policy of the government of Israel to hand over vital assets to terrorists represents a gross violation of a policy decision taken by the democratically elected government of Israel.

In other words, Sharon’s policy has nothing to do with the policy of the government of Israel.

At a time when Israel is just about to expel Jews from their homes and farms, the issue should not only focus on the inherent question of a person’s right to private property.

The focus should instead be focus on whether the government of Israel has a right to violate its own statutes and hand over property without enforcing the provision of the law enacted by the government of Israel, to ensure that the people who receive that land are “not involved in terror”

The Bible refers to a king who transfers the property of a murdered man to his killer.

As the Prophet Elijah said to King Ahab, “Have you murdered [him] and also inherited [his property]?”