In the wake of a report last week by Arutz Sheva-Israel National News , Jerusalem real estate purchased in a Zionist reclamation project over 30 years ago will remain in Jewish hands. Aryeh King, chairman of the National Lands Fund, told Arutz Sheva Radio about an American Jewish businessman who lost his properties as a result of the global economic meltdown. As a result, among other necessary steps, he was forced to sell off Jerusalem property he purchased as part of a Zionist venture 30 years ago, when he lived in Iran. Thus far, King reported, the businessman sold one dunam of his four-dunam property in the capital to an Arab purchaser, who also obtained the right of first refusal for the remaining dunams should a Jewish buyer not be found. This week King said that, due to the exposure the story received through Arutz Sheva , dozens of Jewish purchasers have come forward. They include Israelis and Diaspora Jews, some of whom offered to buy the land themselves and others who wanted to establish purchasing collectives. Among those who offered to purchase the Jerusalem real estate, King said, was former Knesset Member Shmuel Flatto-Sharon. The former MK and businessman expressed an interest in the property after reading about the case on the Arutz Sheva website. According to King, due to the many offers the current landowner received, it was decided to divide the remaining dunams of property among three separate buyers, rather than selling to one individual. One of the buyers is a Jerusalem businessman, a second is a resident of the south of the country and a third lives abroad. The dunam that has already been sold, to a resident of the Beit Safafa neighborhood of Jerusalem, cannot be retrieved unless the buyer is willing to sell the land back. That purchase was already completed and carried out before the American businessman's story was publicized.
