Latest update: 22/02/2010

- Israel - Israeli settlements - Israeli-Palestinian conflict - Palestinian Territories

Jerusalem: the battle for land

A new battle for land has begun in East Jerusalem. Religious Jews are buying up land and houses from their Palestinian owners. Their aim: to make any future division of Jerusalem impossible. But for the families who give in to the temptation to sell, the reprisals can end in death. France 24 takes you behind the scenes to meet both sides of a highly controversial property war.

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Behind the scenes of the Jerusalem battle for land, by Marc de Chalvron

A discreet meeting in an upscale Jerusalem hotel, big sums of cash, death threats and financial blackmail…welcome to the behind the scenes story of the Jerusalem battle.

Arieh King is not a man who hides. This is his strategy: saying out loud what everybody thinks in private. "Money will solve the problem", he says calmly. He has just come out of a discreet meeting with a Palestinian. Filmed by a hidden camera, the self-dubbed Zionist real estate broker in East Jerusalem tries to persuade his Arab interlocutor to leave his land. Hundreds of thousands of shekels are offered to convince him. King’s ultimate objective is political: to install as many Jews as possible in Palestinian areas of the holy city. He’ll stop at nothing, as long as it is legal under Israeli law, to make the Arabs leave and make Jerusalem Jewish.

Mohammed Maraji is the hidden face of this murky world. For the first time, he accepts to be filmed, although not without hesitation and equivocation, and he sometimes even threatens us. He is right to be afraid. Today he voluntarily acknowledges that he was a "collaborator", the person who allowed a group of settlers to buy houses; to obtain land in East Jerusalem. A risky affair.

A Palestinian who sells his house to a Jew quite simply runs the risk of death. And everyone thinks so today: even for his family and the few friends he has left, Mohammed Maraji is indeed guilty of this "crime". He denies it with the little force and energy he has left, saying he never signed the papers. Now betrayed, he defends himself and hits back, slamming the settlers’ methods and setting himself a lifetime objective: to kick out those Jews who today live in "his" house. This broken, lonely man wants revenge on the settlers.

For several weeks, Marc de Chalvron and Annette Young, FRANCE 24’s correspondents in Jerusalem, followed these two men with two separate destinies: one spurred on by ideology, the other broken by years of frustration. A world which is neither black nor white, but grey - this is where the future of Jerusalem is being played out.

03/02/2012 - REPORTERS

The faces of French poverty

According to a recent survey, almost a quarter of French people have little or nothing left to live on at the end of the month. These "nouveaux poor" are students, single parents, casual workers and the elderly. Our reporter went to meet them.

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27/01/2012 - REPORTERS

Egypt’s Salafist surge

In a matter of months, Egypt’s ultra-conservative Salafists have beaten a path from marginalised religious sect to major political force. But what do we know about them, aside from their heavily religious roots? France 24’s Chris Moore and Noreddine Bezziou travelled to Egypt to find out.

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20/01/2012 - REPORTERS

France's lost football talent

They could have been future French champions. But like many young footballers with dual nationality who were trained in France, Cheik and Mohamed have chosen to leave the country to play for their nationality of origin. How can these talented young players be persuaded to stay in France?

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18/01/2012 - REPORTERS

A Burmese spring

After half a century of military dictatorship, there are signs of growing democratic openness in Burma. After freeing Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in 2010, the regime has now released political prisoners and opened a dialogue with separatist guerrillas. Our reporters travelled across the country to find out why one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world is suddenly opening up.

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13/01/2012 - REPORTERS

Guantanamo prison, through Cuban eyes

Despite US President Barack Obama’s promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, 171 men are still locked up there. Our reporters went to the two villages closest to the barbed wire surrounding the military base and met the Cubans living beside these awkward neighbours. It is a sensitive zone, just a few metres from the American watchtowers.

Comments (2)

Jerusalem should be united

by Anonyme - 08/03/2010 - 05:21

In my opinion, Jerusalem should be united under Palestinian and Jewish people. They both should have the right to live in the land of their ancestors. I understand the Jewish peoples eagerness to obtain some land, but they do it unfarely. As you see in the video, the woman was kicked out of her own house to give way to settlers. This is clearly criminal and very disgusting. They are just doing the exact same thing as Hitler but on a lager time period.

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Jerusalem is indeed a Jewish

by Anonyme - 21/02/2010 - 18:55

Jerusalem is indeed a Jewish city and i understand the jewish people's eagerness to settle in their city. One should ask a palestinian or an iranian how they would if Jewish people settled in their holy city like mecca which was theirs by right from the the olden times, I am sure they would do everything in their power get rid of the jewish in their holy city, and i must say that is just how the jewish in Jerusalem would be feeling. And the last thing I don't it was a good idea to take the video of the meeting between the palestinian and King.

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