(JTA) — A Palestinian Authority court sentenced two men to prison with hard labor for attempting to sell land to Israeli Jews.
The First Instance Court in Kalkilia, in the northern West Bank, handed down the sentence Wednesday to the defendants, both from the town of Kufr Thuluth, the WAFA news agency reported.
The deal on land they sold in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, as well as Israel within its pre-1967 borders, was to take place in January.
The Palestinian Preventive Security said Monday on its website that it arrested four people, one of them a lawyer, suspected of plotting to “sell land to Israeli parties.” None of the parties were identified in WAFA’s reporting.
According to WAFA, the land is worth $10 million.
Palestinian law bans the sale of land in the West Bank and Gaza to nonresidents without a prior approval from the Council of Ministers.
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