Syrian Regime Imposes Stricter Real Estate Restrictions on Palestinians: A Violation of Established Rights

Watan-In a new measure of tightening restrictions against Palestinians in Syria, the Assad regime recently issued a decision to suspend all real estate transactions for Palestinians as a whole. They are now treated as foreigners, contrary to the existing Syrian laws and regulations that used to treat Palestinians as Syrians.

According to the mentioned decision issued by the Cabinet of the regime, Palestinians are now required to obtain approval from the Ministry of Interior to own properties. The property conditions include a minimum area of 140 square meters, a green title deed of 2400 shares.

Ownership is limited to married individuals with families, and the purpose of ownership is strictly for residential purposes, not for commerce. Additionally, Palestinians are now restricted to owning only one property, and properties subject to court rulings or owned by a notary public are completely prohibited from Palestinian ownership.

Since the beginning of this month, all real estate transactions for Palestinians as a whole have been suspended, and they are now treated as foreigners when it comes to property ownership, subject to stringent conditions.

The ‘Working Group for Palestinians in Syria’ quoted a Palestinian human rights activist, who chose to remain anonymous for security reasons, stating that the executive instructions of Law No. 11 of 2011, regulating the ownership of non-Syrians for real estate rights in Syria, issued by the Prime Minister (Decision No. 2484 of 2013 and Decision No. 1555 of 2021), had exempted Palestinians who are under Syrian jurisdiction according to the provisions of Law No. 260 dated 10/7/1956 from the term ‘non-Syrian’ mentioned in Article 1 of the mentioned law.

The source added that the new decision appears to contradict the interpretation of some of these instructions by the Syrian Court of Cassation (such as Decision Basis 1520, No. 1923, 19/11/2019, issued by Civil Chamber 2 Real Estate A). However, it seems that this exception has been annulled according to the decision of the Prime Minister No. 1011 of 2022, indicating that he could not verify its validity due to the absence of a signature on the mentioned document, and there is a resemblance to the formulation with the content of Decision No. 11567 of 2011.

The human rights activist, according to the same source, pointed out that the correct legal decision is that the Palestinian resident in Syria must obtain the approval of the Minister of Interior to own a property intended for residential purposes, similar to other non-Syrians.

He explained that the reason for this requirement is that Law No. 260, in its first article, equated between Syrians and Palestinians residing in Syria, effective from the law’s enactment date, in terms of rights (employment, work, trade, and military service), without explicitly mentioning the right to property ownership among those rights.

The text of Law No. 260, issued on 10/7/1956, clearly states that a “non-Syrian” is a person who does not hold Syrian Arab nationality, whether an ordinary or legal person. An exception to this definition is made for Palestinians treated like Syrians or other Arabs from 1948.

Based on this, Palestinians could own properties handled by a notary public or court ruling, with no limit on the number and limited to one property with a green title deed. This was intended to increase the opportunities for the integration of Palestinians into the social and economic life of Syria. However, the new decision undermines this advantage.