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SETTLERS' LAW: SEIZURE of PALESTINIAN LANDS Sabri Jiryis

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SETTLERS' LAW: SEIZURE of PALESTINIAN LANDS Sabri Jiryis SETTLERS' LAW: SEIZURE OF PALESTINIAN LANDS Sabri Jiryis* * Sabri Jiryis, M.Jur. 1963, Faculty of Law, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and a member of the Israeli Bar. He practised law in Haifa until 1970, when he decided to leave for Beirut, Lebanon. Since 1978, he has been serving as Director General of the PLO Research Centre. His works include Democratic Freedoms in Israel (1972) and The Arabs in Israel (1976). With the United Nations' adoption of its resolution on the partition of Palestine armed clashes between Arabs and Jews broke out in the country. These gradually escalated until, with the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel, they developed into an all-out war between the Jewish State and its Arab neighbours. This war lasted until the end of 1948 and was brought to an end in the first half of the following year with the signing of armistice agreements between Israel and her four Arab neighbours, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. The outcome of this war brought about dramat- ic changes. The Jewish settlers in Palestine now found themselves in control of nearly three quarters of the area of Palestine, totalling 22 million dunums of land, whereas the area they had obtained possession of in the whole of Palestine before the war was only about one and three quarter million dunums' -about 6.6 percent of the land area of the country. The Palestinians, on the other hand, ended up either as refugees outside and inside the territory of Palestine, or as a minority under the rule of the Jewish State. This paper focuses on the post-State legislation and orders that were enacted or utilized to ensure the transfer and ultimate ownership of Palestini- an lands and properties to the new State and its settler citizens. All through the legislative stages explained below, one main and distinct policy line remained unchanged: how to effect the transfer of Palestinian lands to the Jewish settlers. The process took various forms, devised a variety of tech- niques and myths and established and used many administrative agencies, but the ultimate objective was never changed or modified. I The Property of Palestinian Refugees Vast areas of the land that Israel controlled were the private property of Palestinian Arabs, who were expelled from, or forced to leave as a result of the fighting. Many of them hoped to return, but the Israeli authorities soon decided to the contrary. Even before the war ended, Israel had taken posses- sion of the majority of these lands, and started to earmark them for Jewish settlement. To achieve this purpose, a number of edicts were issued and measures were taken immediately after the end of the war; this process finally culminated in the passing of the Absentees' Property Law, 19502. A The "Absentees": An Israeli Legal Definition The definition of "absentee" in the Law was framed in such a way as to ensure that it applied to every Palestinian or resident in Palestine who had left his usual place of residence in Palestine for any place inside or outside the country after the adoption of the partition of Palestine resolution by the UN ; 1. Granott, Agrarian Reform and the Record of Israel, 28 (1965). 2. 4 Laws of the State of Israel (hereinafter As 1) at 68. Throughout this article Hebrew dates are omitted. .
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