Lena El-Malak, Arab Media Watch member and PhD candidate in international law at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, emailed the Guardian readers editor on 11 November 2008 to point out an error in an article on Israel / Palestine. As of 17 November 2008, she has not received a reply.

Dear Sir/Madam,
 
I am writing you regarding Mr. Rory McCarthy's article on the eviction of a Palestinian couple in East Jerusalem ("Israeli police evict Palestinian couple from home of 52 years"). First, I would like to thank you for publishing this article. I found it very informative. I would, however, like to point out that the last paragraph in the article contains inaccurate information. Mr. McCarthy writes that: "Although Israel's absentee property laws were applied against the Kurd family, they are rarely, if ever, applied on properties in Israel that were owned by Palestinians before the 1948 war."
 
I am afraid the opposite is true. Absentee property laws were specifically used in Israel to expropriate property owned by Palestinians before the 1948 war. Israel used these laws to declare the owners of property in Israel "absentees", since they had fled to neighbouring countries during the 1948 war, and then proceed to expropriate the property, bring it under the control of a so-called Custodian of Absentee Property, before eventually transferring ownership of it to the State of Israel and other related agencies (like the Jewish National Fund). You can find more information about this issue in the following sources:
 
Abu Hussein H. and McKay, F., Access Denied: Palestinian Land Rights in Israel, London, Zed Books Ltd, 2003.
Fischbach, M., Records of Dispossession: Palestinian Refugee Property and the Arab Israeli Conflict, New York, Columbia University Press, 2003.
Kagan, M., "Destructive Ambiguity: Enemy Nationals and the Legal Enabling of Ethnic Conflict in the Middle East", 38 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. (2007), 263.
Kagan, M., "Restitution as a Remedy for Refugee Property Claims in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict", 19 Florida J. of Intl L. (2007), 422.
 
I am also about to complete a thesis on Palestinian refugee property claims under International Law and would be delighted to answer any additional queries you have on this matter.
 
I thank you in advance for your kind attention.
 
Best regards,
 
Lena El-Malak