Jewish National Fund (JNF) demands state compensation for land purchased by Palestinian citizens
On 28 September 2008, the Supreme Court of Israel held a hearing on petitions filed by Adalah; by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel; and by the Tel Aviv University Law Clinic with Mossawa demanding the cancellation of an Israel Land Administration (ILA) policy that prevents Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel from participating in bids for the purchase of land under the control of the Jewish National Fund (JNF).
At the hearing, lawyers representing the JNF announced their agreement to a prior proposal made by the state that the ILA will allocate JNF-controlled land in accordance with the principle of equality, and that in return the State of Israel will compensate the JNF for each plot of land purchased by Arab citizens. However, the JNF and the state also announced that they had not succeeded to come to an agreement over a formula for executing the compensation. After the petitions were filed in 2004, the court gave the JNF and the state a period of time (that has been repeatedly extended) in order to negotiate and find a solution to this matter. However, four years later, these negotiations have stalled.
At the hearing, the Supreme Court decided to give the JNF and the state a further 30 days in which to reach an agreement and inform the court thereof. In case they are unable to come to an agreement, the court will continue to hear the case.
Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara argued at the hearing that the principle issue of the petition is that the ILA, as a state entity, must allocate land in accordance with the principle of equality and that Arab citizens of the state must be able to fully exercise their right to land. By marketing JNF-controlled land only to Jews, the ILA participates in perpetuating illegal discrimination against Arab citizens of Israel.
Attorney Bishara also emphasized that even if these negotiations result in the JNF’s consenting to the proposal of the AG, this agreement would create a new problem in that the State of Israel would compensate the JNF each time it sold land to an Arab citizens, which in practice amounts to rewarding it for discrimination. It should also be stressed that a large part of the land under control of the JNF was awarded to it by the state during the 1950s, much of it confiscated from Palestinian refugees.
