Family Mourns Palestinian, Gingerly

JERUSALEM — Relatives of Farid Bashiti said Sunday that they do not know who might have killed the elderly Palestinian land dealer. And they appeared very much afraid to find out.

Bashiti, who worked for 30 years as a real estate agent in East Jerusalem, was found dead late last week, his body dumped by a roadside in the Palestinian-controlled city of Ramallah. The 70-year-old man had been bound and gagged, and his skull was crushed, family members said.

Israeli police have said they are investigating whether Bashiti was killed because he was suspected of selling Arab land to Jews. A senior Israeli official went a step further Sunday, accusing members of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s security services, possibly his own security detail, of direct involvement in Bashiti’s death.

Palestinian officials denied the accusations, with Palestinian Municipal Affairs Minister Saeb Erekat calling them “absolutely unfounded.”

But the case, which followed by less than a week a Palestinian Authority ruling authorizing the death penalty for any Palestinian who sells Arab land to Jews, strikes at the heart of the conflict here: the question of who controls the land that both sides want.

And it comes at a time of growing desperation on the part of the Palestinians, who see their dream of an independent state threatened by Israel’s plans to expand Jewish settlements in territories it has occupied since 1967. Peace talks between the two sides have been deadlocked since mid-March, when Israel broke ground for a new Jewish neighborhood in traditionally Arab East Jerusalem.

The sensitivity of the situation has forced Bashiti’s relatives, in the midst of their grief, to tread an uncomfortably fine line as they struggle to learn the truth about his death without angering either Palestinian or Israeli authorities.

“We are trying to be careful,” Bashiti’s cousin Mohammed Bashiti said Sunday. “It’s a very, very sensitive issue.”

“We have no accusations against anyone,” the victim’s nephew Assem Bashiti said, going on to thank the Palestinian and Israeli security forces for their work in the investigation.

But some of the slain man’s relatives, before they were hushed by others, said a connection between the Palestinian Authority’s death penalty ruling and Bashiti’s death was “a possibility.”

The family members all insisted, however, that Bashiti was never involved in the sale of land to Jews. They described the reports as part of an anonymous, unfounded rumor campaign that began about two years ago and prompted the Palestinian Authority to call him in for several rounds of questioning about his real estate activities.

Bashiti’s most recent interrogation was two weeks ago in the city of Bethlehem, his family said. “After he showed them all his documents, they said everything was OK with him and he just went on,” said Bashiti’s widow, Nazik, 60, her eyes hollow. “He is innocent.”

The senior Israeli official, however, said that Bashiti was widely known as a Palestinian who would sell real estate to Jews.

The official also said Israeli investigators believe members of one of two Palestinian security forces--the General Intelligence Service, commanded by Brig. Gen. Amin Hindi, or Arafat’s own security detail, known as Force 17--kidnapped and killed the real estate agent.

Bashiti was seen at a headquarters used by both services in Ramallah at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday, the night he disappeared, the official said.

Palestinian Justice Minister Freih abu Medeen, who announced last week that Palestinian courts were authorized to give the death sentence to those who sold land to Jews, said after Bashiti’s body was found that he did not condone the slaying. Nevertheless, he said, it was proof that “nobody will accept a traitor.”

And within hours of the discovery Friday, Sheik Ekrima Sabri, Jerusalem’s highest-ranking Islamic leader, delivered a fiery sermon at the city’s Al Aqsa mosque in which he declared Bashiti an “infidel” unfit for burial in a Muslim ceremony.

Palestinian authorities have turned over Bashiti’s body to Israeli investigators for an autopsy. Israeli police said they hope to complete the investigation within a few days.

Meanwhile, the tensions over land are unlikely to ease.

Within the next two weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to hold a series of governmental meetings to discuss a “final status” arrangement with the Palestinians, including how much land would be returned to them in a permanent peace agreement.

Palestinians have said they expect 90% of the West Bank to be turned over to them, but Israeli military officials have argued that 60% of the territory constitutes areas essential to Israel’s security and should remain under its control.

Muhammed El-Hasan of The Times’ Jerusalem Bureau contributed to this report.