What is lacking in the article that ran in the New York Times on July 27, 2018 – “Can Israel be Jewish and Liberal”, by Omri Boehm, in which the author analyzes the current national state law controversy in Israel, is the context of this legislation:
A few years ago, Ayala Chason, senior news reporter for Israel TV Channel 1, produced a news feature which documented that Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf States were buying up swaths of Jewish property in the Upper Galilee region of Northern Israel.
Chason’s source for the news story: One of Israel’s leading geographers, Dr. Yossi Katz
This news report filed by Ayala Chason, not identified with the national political camp in Israel, caused a stir in the Israeli government and the Israeli Knesset Parliament, because no Israeli lawmaker or policy maker had conceptualized the need for protective legislation to assure continued Jewish ownership of Jewish property in the Jewish state.
For that reason, top officials have facilitate legislation that would obviate against the possibility that Israel’s oil-rich Arab neighbors would purchase Jewish property in Israel.
Spokespeople of the Israeli government are not currently saying anything disparaging about Saudi Arabia. Israel has recently forged a strategic relationship with the Saudis to counter Iranian influence, even though the Saudis remain in a formal state of war with Israel , since 1948, having never agreed to any armistice or any peace treaty with the Jewish state. Saudi support for the Boycott of Israel, now known as BDS, remains consistent.
An aside: Last week, an Arab merchant purchased a Jewish home off of Ein Rogel Street near Abu Tor in West Jerusalem for eight million shekels in cash, way above the asking price. The cash source : Qatar.
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