Turkey has given a copy of Ottoman-era archived documents to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to help Palestinians legally counter the Israeli occupation’s land claims, according to Hebrew news sources.

The archives include tens of thousands of land registries from the Palestinian territories under the Ottoman Empire’s control between the years 1516 to 1917.

“Lawyers from the PA are already using the materials in the archive, in order to undermine Israel’s claim on land around Israel,” and especially in occupied Jerusalem and West Bank, according to “Israel National News.”

Turkish authorities delivered the archives to representatives of the PA in Ankara last year and a part of the archives was later transferred to Bethlehem.

Though the documents in the archives have the potential to shake up the occupation state’s real estate market, nothing has happened so far, it said.

But lawyers from Jerusalem’s Arab neighbourhoods are regularly turning to the archive to find documents that help them in legal battles over claims to many properties, mostly in the Jerusalem area, “Israel National News” said.

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Featured image is from Quds News Network