Knesset Enacts New Amendment to the Land Ordinance of 1943 to Block Palestinian Claims for Land Previously Confiscated by the State
On 10 February 2010, the Knesset passed an amendment to the Land Ordinance (Acquisition for Public. Purposes)–1943. The aim of the new law was primarily to confirm state ownership of land confiscated from Palestinians, even where the land had not been used to serve the purpose for which it was originally confiscated. The amendment comes to circumvent the Israeli Supreme Court decision in the Karsik case in 2001. According to Karsik, a precedent-setting judgment, the authorities are obliged return confiscated land in the event it has not been used for the purpose for which it was confiscated.
One of the most important provisions of the new amendment provides that the state has the right not to use the confiscated land for the specific purpose for which it was confiscated for 17 years. It further establishes that a citizen does not have the right to demand the return of the confiscated land in the event it has not been used for the purpose for which it was originally confiscated, if ownership of the land has been transferred to a third party or if more than 25 years have passed since its confiscation.
The new law expands the authority of the Minister of Finance to confiscate land for “public purposes,” contrary to the courts' tendency in recent years to repeatedly narrow the definition of the term. According to the new law, the definition of “public purposes” includes the establishment of new towns and the expansion or development of existing towns. The law also allows the Minister of Finance to alter the purpose of the confiscation and declare a new purpose if the initial purpose of the confiscation had not been realized.
In Adalah's view, the wording of the new law appears to have been specifically designed to prevent Palestinian citizens of Israel from submitting lawsuits to reclaim their confiscated land: over 25 years have passed since the confiscation of the vast majority of Palestinian land, and the ownership of large tracts of land has been transferred to third parties, including Zionist institutions like the Jewish National Fund.
The new law is silent regarding land confiscated under other laws, including laws enacted during the early years of the state, and in particular the Land Acquisition Law (Validation of Acts and Compensation) – 1953 (Authentication Processes and Compensation), enacted primarily to legalize the confiscation of Palestinian land. The majority of the land of the uprooted village of Lajoun was confiscated under this law. Adalah appealed to the Supreme Court in September 2007 to demand the return of this land to its owners – Palestinian citizens of Israel - on the ground that it has never been used for the purpose for which it was originally confiscated. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal on 4 January 2010. (See: http://www.adalah.org/eng/pressreleases/pr.php?file=10_01_12)
At the time, the Karsik case was considered as an extremely important judgment since it promotes the constitutional right of property ownership. The Supreme Court has declined to adopt this precedent since its establishment in 2001 to allow the Knesset to legislate a comprehensive law to govern the return of land that has not been used for the original purpose of confiscation. Through the enactment of the new amendment to the Land Ordinance, the Knesset has now narrowed the applicability of the Karsik ruling.
