The Israeli-American Likud banker and warmonger Irving I. Moscowitz, financial backer of the archeological tunnel in east Jerusalem and supporter, financially or otherwise, of virtually all Zionist groups developing stolen Palestinian land including his own properties in Maale Adumim, Har Homa in Palestinian east Jerusalem and Beitar Illit is claimed to have moved into the real estate market in Lebanon.
Regarding occupied Palestine, Moscowitz has for years advised would be investors, (ignoring the Geneva Conventions and settled International law) at Jewish only "real estate fairs" in American and European Synagogues : "Your investment is insured, protected and 100% legal. You should consider strengthening your portfolio and Israel's future!"
Moscowitz is said to expect competition for Lebanese land from Lev Leviev, who the NYT refers to as "the missionary mogul". Leviev, now the world's largest cutter and polisher of diamonds, also specializes in illegal real estate developments on stolen Palestinian land. Leviev's , Leader Management and Development, is currently building the settlement of Zufim on Palestinian land in the illegally occupied West Bank. When asked recently by Ha'aretz Daily if he has a problem building on expropriated Arab land he replied,"For me, Israel, Jerusalem, Lebanon are all the same."So are the Golan Heights. As far as I'm concerned, all of Eretz Israel is holy. To decide the future of Jerusalem? It belongs to the Jewish people. What is there to decide? Jerusalem is not a topic for discussion."
Both tell associates that with their American partners, they are moving into the Lebanese real estate market which they find attractive. If true, Lebanon's Parliament might want to consider using some of the extra time they have extended themselves this summer, currently being devoted to sounding the Chicken Little - 'sky is falling' alarm about Palestinians wanting to exercise their internationally mandated civil right to own a home pending their return to Palestine. Parliament should investigate claims that "American" companies", some with 100% Israeli stockholders are buying up Lebanese land and using bribes to avoid Lebanese law.
"Darwish', a school teacher in South Lebanon explained this week what many Palestinians feel:
"My family home and property were stolen by Zionist thugs in Akka in 1948 and also our cousin's home outside Jerusalem. If you look at the current advertisement in Israeli newspapers, ("Darwish shows a copy of an ad he printed off the internet from Haaretz.com that reads, "Own a little piece of Switzerland" which describes a quaint Swiss like scene, and it shows a bucolic vista that Darwish claims was his family's village, now a Zionist colony.) so you see this is my problem. In Palestine our home was stolen and in Lebanon I cannot own one. Worse than this, it bothers me and my family that Zionists can now sell my land in Palestine to foreigners while as a Palestinian in Lebanon I cannot buy a temporary home. Israelis can invest their profits from our stolen Palestinian land and they can build homes in Lebanon and sell to other foreigners, but Palestinians can't buy a home here. We have heard that some of the same "American and European" companines that sell our Palestinian land to foreigners in Palestinian now operate in Lebanon. One "American" company is reported to have 11 stockholders. All of them Israelis".
Parliament appears to be playing the Palestinians this summer, as well as playing the international community that expects more courage, compassion and respect for international human rights from a gifted people. Parliament risks degrading Lebanon in the process and its leaders should schedule a straight up vote without further dilatory tactics such a "more study" and "building near unanimous consensus" that appears designed to produce the lowest common denominator which means that without political will and courage it will likely produce not much at all. Regarding six decades of annual calls for "more study of this sensitive problem' there are already more than 30 studies completed just since 2000. They unanimously conclude what nearly every ten years old in Lebanon understands needs to be done and that is to grant the internationally mandated right to work, to own, inherit and bequeath a home, and access to some social security protection without further dilatory tactics.
Franklin Lamb volunteers with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign and can be reached at fplamb@palestinecivilrightscampaign.org.
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