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| Palestinian olive farms in the hills of the West Bank. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian |
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Ali and Sana Dabbagh were amazed at how easy it was to buy a piece of Palestinian
land. Their parents fled in the 1948 war, leaving their homes forever.
But more than 60 years later, it took just one click of a mouse for them
to claim their own hilltop outside the ancient village of Farkha,
looking out over undulating terraces of olive and almond trees towards
Tel Aviv. "It felt unreal. We've bought land elsewhere before but there's an emotional factor when it comes to Palestine – it was hard for me to accept that I owned land there," Ali recalled. "It had also been pretty much impossible to buy land in Palestine and guarantee that you owned it until we met Khaled."
Khaled Sabawi, the Canadian-born son of Palestinian refugees, launched Tabo three years ago. Appropriating the Ottoman term for "title deed", the business was built upon a dream of his father's to help Palestinians buy Palestinian land. It is a dream that most of the estimated 5 million scattered Palestinian refugees would consider impossible.
The conflict that Barack Obama flies into this week for the first time during his presidency is essentially an Israeli-Palestinian battle for land. It is a fight for ownership of the 10,000 sq miles (26,000 sq km) of historic Palestine claimed by both sides as a holy land and a homeland. In terms of "facts on the ground", it is a battle that Israel is winning.
In 1993, the international community witnessed Israeli and Palestinian leaders sign the Oslo agreement to divide the land into two states for two peoples. Yet, since 1996, more than 100 new Israeli outposts have been established in the future Palestinian state. The Palestinians have built one, Rawabi.
Many Israeli Jews believe they have a God-given right to settle anywhere in the biblical land of Israel. Others justify the defiance of international law on the grounds of national security or argue that Arabs cannot be trusted.
Many settlers have benefited from cheap mortgages and enjoy an enviable lifestyle. As Michael Sfard, a top Israeli lawyer advising the human rights group Yesh Din, puts it: "During the second intifada, at negotiations in Taba and Camp David, Israelis said you can't negotiate peace in one room when there is shooting outside.
"By the same token, you can't negotiate peace in one room while an unofficial land grab is being waged outside.... READ MORE
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