The community of Ma’ale Adumim in Judea and Samaria. Photo: David Mosberg via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – A Palestinian man suspected of selling land to Jews was murdered near his home in central Israel last Friday.

Police believe Ahmed Salameh, 51, from the Arab Israeli town of Jaljulia in central Israel, was killed due to his business as an intermediary for land sales in Judea and Samaria to Jewish settlers.

Salameh’s father was murdered 30 years ago under similar circumstances.

Originally from the West Bank city of Qalqilya, Salameh had acquired Israeli residency rights through his marriage to an Israeli Arab woman.

Unidentified assailants shot and killed Salameh at close range while he was in his car.

He was critically wounded and was later pronounced dead a short while later at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba.

Sharon District Police officers launched an investigation and requested a gag order on the details of the case.

According to media reports in the Palestinian Authority, Salameh was wanted by Palestinian Authority security services for his involvement in land sales to Jews. In the PA, selling land to Jews is a serious crime, punishable by death or a life sentence behind bars.

In an online video posted by Salameh himself, he discussed his business, saying: “Residents of the West Bank, I swear to God that our cousins [the Jews] are better. To all those still adhering to nationalism, listen carefully—the State of Israel exists. You can do what you want, but you cannot change history.”

“You can call me an agent and a collaborator,” he said in the video. “To anyone with land on the other side of the [security fence] who isn’t thinking about selling, the same thing that happened to the refugees—still holding on to their keys [to houses they fled] and believing in the United Nations and UNRWA—will happen to you. I am prepared to purchase lands adjacent to the fence, anywhere and in any area.”