It’s nice to see the optimism in Mahmoud Abbas’s abilities to work out a ceasefire even while the Israeli government continues to exacerbate problems by taking things that aren’t theirs. Using a hitherto shied-away from law, Sharon’s government has been quietly claiming the bits of Palestinian land cut off from its owners by the so-called Apartheid Wall as Israel’s own.

The Absentee Land Law, initiated in the ’50s to snatch homes from Arabs driven out at Israel’s creation, transfers ownership of the property to the State of Israel, reports the Israeli daily Haaretz. Sharon began enforcing the law at summer’s end—although it’s only come to light with recent legal action. To date, those affected live mainly in the Bethlehem and Beit Jalla areas, but lawyers representing the landowners suspect hundreds more will soon face the same problem.

Some Israelis believe that reviving the controversial law will backfire against the government. Former Jerusalem city council member Moshe Amirav thinks that, once the case hits the courts, it could “open all the legal and moral questions of 1948.”

» Scott Saxon