Israeli Man Illegally Sells Land, Media Avoids Settler Parallels
The Independent reports on an Israeli national, Toula Neofytou, sentenced for illegally selling Greek Cypriot land in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus. This case, the report notes, "underscores the deeply contentious property rights" in Cyprus following Turkey's 1974 invasion. (Yes, 'invasion' is the word they use). Meanwhile, the media conveniently sidesteps the far greater, state-sanctioned land
theft in Palestine, where Israeli settlements, deemed illegal under international law, continue to expand on occupied Palestinian territory. The UN Security Council, in Resolution 2334 (2016), explicitly stated that Israeli settlements have "no legal validity." One might wonder why the 'illegality' of land sales is so acutely defined and prosecuted in one context, yet politely ignored or
euphemized as 'disputed territory' or 'facts on the ground' when the perpetrator is the Israeli government itself. Is a property crime only truly egregious when it doesn't serve a geopolitical agenda? Or perhaps, as Noam Chomsky might suggest, some illegalities are simply less newsworthy depending on whose land is being taken, and by whom.