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Monday, May 10, 2010     FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Cash-strapped Hamas forces mimic Robin Hood, seizes Palestinian property

GAZA CITY — The Hamas regime has been seizing property believed owned or operated by the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip.

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Palestinian sources said Hamas security forces have taken over scores of vacant apartments or homes in the Gaza Strip in 2010. The sources said the properties were believed to have been abandoned by PA officials when they fled the Gaza Strip during the Hamas takeover in 2007.

"We take money from the rich to give the poor not vice versa," Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on May 1. "The nature of the taxes that are imposed by the government is that they are few and not much."


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Some of the confiscated apartments were located in the upscale neighborhood of Rimal in Gaza City. Many of the occupants had been PA and Fatah officials who either fled or were killed during the Hamas takeover in 2007.

"Hamas knows exactly who ran away and who left property," a Palestinian source said. "They have decided to allow Hamas officers to live in them."

The sources said the Hamas policy would affect more than 1,000 houses, apartments and other assets left behind by the exiled PA officials. Most of those who fled the Hamas takeover were members of the PA security forces, including the Preventive Security Apparatus, Military Intelligence, General Intelligence Services and the Presidential Guard.

"In some cases, those who fled left behind others who moved in and kept the apartments," the source said. "Those being occupied by Hamas officers and officials are those that have been vacant for at least a year."

The sources said Hamas planned to intensify its confiscation of assets by absentee PA officials and Fatah members. They said Hamas, amid a cash flow crisis, has begun seizing apartments vacant for less than six months.

The sources said Hamas has also justified the seizure of apartments owned by Fatah members accused of economic crimes. They cited the case of Aliya Aweida, who found her apartment taken over by a Hamas police officer in April 2010. The Hamas Interior Ministry said Ms. Aweida's father, Said, who owned the apartment, had been charged with embezzlement.

"What right and by what religion does he feel permission to take over my home and my belongings?" Ms. Aweida asked. "How can he himself accept to live in a home where the things are not his? How does he sleep on a bed he knows was taken by force?"

Ms. Aweida told the Ramallah-based news agency Maan that the Interior Ministry has demanded proof that her family rather than the PA owns the apartment. When she provided the deed, the ministry said Said, being treated for an advanced stage of cancer, was being investigated for embezzlement.

Hamas has acknowledged that it was seizing vacant apartments in the Gaza Strip. They cited the so-called Absentee Property Law, which stipulated that returning owners must be allowed to live in their homes regardless of the time spent away.

"No policeman is permitted to take over the home," Hamas Interior Ministry comptroller Hassan Al Seifi said. "By law, it must be returned to its owners."



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