2 Held in Slaying of Real Estate Agent

JERUSALEM — An Israeli judge on Thursday ordered two Palestinians, one a police officer, held on suspicion of involvement in the death of an Arab man accused of selling land to Jews.

The court ordered the detentions in the case of Farid Bashiti, 70, an East Jerusalem real estate agent whose body was found bound and bludgeoned last week in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank city of Ramallah.

Senior Israeli officials, speaking privately, have said they suspect Yasser Arafat’s security forces in the killing, which came just days after the Palestinian Authority declared land sales to Jews a capital crime.

Palestinian officials have denied links to Bashiti’s killing, although they have stopped short of publicly condemning it.

In a closed hearing Thursday, the Jerusalem court ordered the detention for seven more days of Nasser Anani, 33, an East Jerusalem resident who recently became an officer with the Palestinian General Security forces. A second suspect, Nadia Dabbash, 33, also of East Jerusalem, was remanded to custody for 11 days, police said. Both were arrested Wednesday.

Police said Dabbash is believed to have met Bashiti at an East Jerusalem hotel a few hours before he was found dead by the side of a road in Ramallah. Bashiti is believed to have been either lured to Ramallah, perhaps by the prospect of an apartment sale he had been discussing with the woman, or abducted and taken to the city, which is about 15 miles north of Jerusalem.

Other arrests are expected in the case, a police spokesman said.

The investigation “points in the direction of Palestinian Authority involvement, one way or another,” Jerusalem Police Cmdr. Yair Yitzhaki told Israeli television.

Yitzhaki also said the Palestinian Authority lately has increased its activity inside the city, which is prohibited under terms of the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords.

The Palestinian declaration last week on land sales was intended to stop the spread of Jewish settlements throughout the territories Israel has occupied since 1967. The issue has become especially sensitive since Israel broke ground in March for a new Jewish settlement in traditionally Arab East Jerusalem, angering Palestinians and bringing peace talks to a halt.

Family members of the man and woman arrested in the Bashiti case denied Thursday that either could have been involved in the killing.

“My sister didn’t do anything,” Dabbash’s brother was quoted as telling Israeli television.

Anani’s parents, interviewed at the home they shared with their son in the village of Abu Dis, spoke proudly of his decision to join the Palestinian police two months ago. They said he was trained as a lawyer but chose to give up his practice to work with the police as a specialist in dispute resolution.

Anani’s mother, Azizi Anani, said her family knew Farid Bashiti, but not well.

She said his son Mohammed was a neighbor of theirs in Abu Dis. In fact, she said, Mohammed Bashiti had asked Nasser Anani to accompany him to Ramallah last week when he received the call from Palestinian police that his father’s body had been found, and Nasser had done so.

She said Nasser was surprised to get a call from Israeli police a week later asking him to come in for questioning.

He “has absolutely no connection to the killing,” his mother said. “Even if we knew Bashiti sold land to the Jews, we wouldn’t inform on him. My son is a good person, and we like our neighbors. This is not our way.”

Bashiti family members said they are waiting for the results of the investigation. They have denied that Farid Bashiti was involved in land transactions with Jews and have carefully sidestepped the issue of assigning blame in his death.

“We have no suspicion of involvement in the killing by any official or unofficial party,” said Assem Bashiti, the victim’s nephew. “We are waiting for the results.”

Muhammed El-Hasan of The Times’ Jerusalem Bureau contributed to this report.