A Palestinian court sentenced a man from East Jerusalem to life in prison with hard labour for attempting to sell Arab property in Jerusalem’s Old City to Jewish buyers.
Issam Akel was convicted of "attempting to cut off Palestinian land and sell it to a foreign country," the court said.
The ruling underscored an increasingly visible battle in the city's eastern sector that emerged following US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital a year ago.
For a long time Israel has tried to tighten its grip on the contested area, while Palestinians try to push back and maintain their limited foothold in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, condemns those who sell Jerusalem land to Israeli groups or Jewish buyers, but it does not have many options to halt these sales.
It considers such sales to be traitorous and punishable by death, even though Mr Abbas has never enforced that law.
Israel arrested a Palestinian in October, accusing him of helping to plan and carry out the detention of Mr Akel in the West Bank city of Ramallah over his involvement in land sales to Jewish buyers. Israel has banned the PA from conducting political activity in Jerusalem.
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The conflicting claims to East Jerusalem lie at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israel captured the area, home to the city's most sensitive religious sites, in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it, claiming the entire city as its capital. But the annexation is not internationally recognised, and the Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
Mr Trump last year recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Although he said the declaration was not meant to determine the city's final borders, the move was interpreted by both sides as siding with Israel. The Palestinians severed ties with the White House in response.
Mr Abbas said on Monday that he would pre-emptively reject a peace plan the US says it is preparing.
"Jerusalem is not for sale. We will never accept that," he said.
Landfill in numbers
• Landfill gas is composed of 50 per cent methane
• Methane is 28 times more harmful than Co2 in terms of global warming
• 11 million total tonnes of waste are being generated annually in Abu Dhabi
• 18,000 tonnes per year of hazardous and medical waste is produced in Abu Dhabi emirate per year
• 20,000 litres of cooking oil produced in Abu Dhabi’s cafeterias and restaurants every day is thrown away
• 50 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s waste is from construction and demolition
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The view from The National
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
RESULTS
6pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 – Group 1 (PA) $55,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
Winner: Rajeh, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Musabah Al Muhairi (trainer)
6.35pm: Oud Metha Stakes – Rated Conditions (TB) $60,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Get Back Goldie, William Buick, Doug O’Neill
7.10pm: Jumeirah Classic – Listed (TB) $150,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner: Sovereign Prince, James Doyle, Charlie Appleby
7.45pm: Firebreak Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $150,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Hypothetical, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
8.20pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 – Group 2 (TB) $350,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner: Hot Rod Charlie, William Buick, Doug O’Neill
8.55pm: Al Bastakiya Trial – Conditions (TB) $60,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner: Withering, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass
9.30pm: Balanchine – Group 2 (TB) $180,000 (T) 1,800m
Winner: Creative Flair, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
