: ADC: Protest Massive Israeli Sale of Refugee Lands : TEXT: : ADC Action Alert: : Protest Massive Israeli Sale of Refugee Lands : In June, the Israeli Knesset voted to allow the sale of 4,000 sq. km. of : land belonging to Palestinian refugees in Israel to third party : "owners." : The land, which is legally owned by Palestinian refugees but has been : illegally expropriated by the Israeli government, has been held since : 1948 : by the Israel Land Administration (ILA) which engages in long-term lease : agreements with Jewish leasers on behalf of the Israeli government. : These : new laws allow for the outright sale of the land to private groups, : mostly : for the construction of homes for new Russian immigrants. While not : unprecedented in nature, this sale is notable for its extraordinary size : and timing. : As famed researcher Salman Abu Sitta points out in his briefing paper : reproduced at bottom, "as long as the land is leased, not sold, the : legal : rights of the original owners are not easily extinguished. The sale to : a : third party will complicate the legal structure of the ownership and : unwinding of the sale transactions." Thus, such a sale is deeply : harmful : to the legal rights of refugee owners, is a blow to their ability to : assert their property rights, and is a serious threat to implementing : the : refugees' right of return. : ACTION REQUESTED: : Please contact the State Department and point out to them that any such : sale of refugee property would constitute a massive violation of : international law and human and property rights. Also let them know the : that the continuing abrogation of the right of return and property : rights of the Palestinian people is a major impediment to the : development of a just and lasting peace in the region. Ask them to : ensure that this sale does not take place and that Israel begins to : recognize the human and property rights of the Palestinian people. : Please use language from this alert or from Abu Sitta's paper below as : talking points. : Please contact: : Secretary of State Madeleine Albright : Write to her at: : 2261 C St.., NW : Washington, DC 20520 : or fax:(202) 647-1533 or : email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] . : TEXT OF SALMAN ABU SITTA'S BRIEFING PAPER ON THE SALE OF REFUGEE LANDS: : Selling Refugees Land : The Issue : In mid-June 2000, 52 members of the Israeli Knesset, representing an odd : coalition, voted in favor of two bills allowing the sale of "Israel’s : land reserves" (i.e. refugees’ land), approximately 4 million donums : (4,000 sq. km), to the select group of kibbutz and moshav, whose number : does not exceed 130,000 members, at a price less than half the land : value. Those in turn will sell it to building contractors. The Israel : Land Administration (ILA) shall therefore change the designation of : these lands from agriculture to building plots. The ILA is the arm : which administers the refugees’ land since its seizure in 1948. The : area of this land is 92% of Israel’s area. This action is contrary to : international law and to Israel’s initial law in 1950, which created the : position of the Custodian of the Absentee Property. The legal title to : these lands is held by the Palestinians who are refugees outside Israel : (5,200,000) and within Israel (250,000). The sanctity of private : ownership is held by international law and respected by civilized : nations. : UN resolution 54/74 of December 1999 affirms the refugees’ right to : their property and to their income from it. Further, it calls upon all : nations to supply any information or documents they have pertaining to : this property. : Background : In 1948, Israel expelled the inhabitants of 531 towns and villages and : took over their land and property. The land in Jewish possession before : the hostilities began in 1948 was: : Full possession 1,449,958 donums (donum = 1000 m2) : Partial possession 56,628 donums (undivided share) : Concession granted by the British Mandate 175,000 donums (expired : in 1948) : Total 1,681,586 d. : Israel’s area 20,325,000 d. : Occupied Palestinian land 18,643,414 d. : Of which: : Expelled Palestinians’ land 17,178,000 d. : Remaining Palestinians land* 1,465,000 d. : *Since 1948, 76% of the remaining Palestinians’ land was confiscated. : Therefore total Palestinian land under Israel’s custody, for which it : has no legal title, is: 18,291,400 d, or 90% of Israel. : If we add the land remaining under Palestinian control today, the total : will be: 18,643,414 d, or 92% of Israel. : Before declaration of the state of Israel, the Haganah created a : Committee for Arab Properties in villages, then in cities, to control : the confiscated property. Six months after the state was established, : in December 1948, the Minister of Finance issued the Emergency : Regulations Relative to Property of Absentees. Finally, the Knesset : passed the Law of the Acquisition of Absentees’ Property (1949 - 1950). : All Arabs in Palestine were considered “absentees” by this definition. : This includes Arabs who remained under Israel’s rule and who were not in : their villages on one particular day, even if they have been away for a : day or visiting in another village two kilometres away. The Custodian : responsible for Absentees’ Property has full discretion to apply the : term to any non-Jew who was residing in Palestine. In 1950, the Israeli : government included all Wakf (Islamic endowment) in the absentee : property, except strictly religious shrines. All mosques and cemeteries : of depopulated villages were not allowed to be used or repaired till : today. Protestations that ‘God is present’ - cannot be treated as : absent, or that similar treatment should be accorded to Wakf as to : Christian and other religious bodies who were left untouched, were to no : avail. : The Knesset established a web of legal structures to obscure the : illegality of seizing Palestinian property. In January 1949, the : Knesset passed the Emergency Regulations for the Exploitation of : Uncultivated Lands - uncultivated because the owners were expelled and : made refugees. Those who tried to return and cultivate their land, or : just retrieve some belongings, were shot at the spot as “infiltrators”. : Another law, the Emergency Land Requisition Law of 1949 gave the : government the right to seize any land necessary for “public security”, : which was interpreted at will. : To establish an intermediary between the Custodian and the end user, a : Development Authority was created to which the Custodian can sell and : which can develop the land but cannot transfer the property to any party : other than Jews. : The Land Acquisition (Validation of Acts and Compensation) Law of 1953 : permitted the Finance Minister to vest ownership of any Palestinian land : in the Development Authority, thus in effect giving an air of legality : to any prior illegal expropriations. : The Palestinians who remained in Israel are also considered Absentees - : dubbed Present Absentees - and lost their land. Furthermore, if a : Palestinian land legally held is coveted by the government, it was : declared a “closed area”, which no one is allowed to enter. After a : passage of time it is declared uncultivated and confiscated under the : Uncultivated Land Law! : A dispute between the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the state of : Israel, which lasted 10 years, culminated in an agreement concluded in : 1961, by which it was agreed that lands previously owned by JNF and : (Palestinian) land ‘sold’ to JNF by the government, together with : Palestinian land confiscated by the government to be run jointly by a : new administration, Israel Land Administration (ILA), on JNF rules, : i.e., no sale, lease, use or cultivation except by Jewish institutions : and individuals. Thus in effect the land of dispossessed Palestinians : became the property of “Jewish people everywhere and in perpetuity”, : subject to JNF regulations prohibiting its lease or use in any way by : Arabs. : The administration of all lands by ILA, remained till today, although in : February 2000, JNF disputed ILA practices as being contrary to JNF : rules. Today, ILA administers 93% of Israel’s area, of which the : overwhelming majority is Palestinian land. : Present Situation : Almost all Palestinians’ land was leased by ILA to Kibbutz and Moshav : cooperatives in a 49-year lease. The members of the Kibbutz are : considered the elite of the Israeli society. They are army generals, : Knesset members and they wield much more power than their numbers : justify. : It soon became apparent that the Kibbutz system has failed miserably, : both ideologically and economically. It was not possible to recruit new : members and there was desertion from the farms to city life. After all, : it turned out that the Zionist is not cut out for agricultural life. : Economically, the Kibbutz became loaded with debts. Only 26% of the : settlements were viable, producing 75% of the produce. They consumed : 75% of the water in Israel at a subsidized rate (80% of production : cost). With such vast resources of land, water and subsidies they : produced only 1.8% of Israel’s GDP. : The accumulated debts incurred by the Kibbutz were carried over by the : government. Out of $5 billion debt, the government wrote off $2 : billion, retabled $2 billion and asked the private sector to contribute : $1 billion. : Early in the nineties, Ariel Sharon and Raphael Eitan introduced : regulations permitting the rezoning of the agricultural (Palestinian) : land leased to the Kibbutz to construction plots to accommodate Russian : immigrants. The Kibbutz would then be “compensated” for this : transaction at 51% of its value. This made the bankrupt farmers very : rich overnight by getting the value of (Palestinian) land they never : owned. : This angered tax payers living in the cities who are the absolute : majority of Jews (90% of Israelis live in 11% of Israel). A series of : committees (latest by Prof. Boaz Ronen) reduced the “compensation” to : 25% of the land value. Thus, the notion of sacred spiritual property was : transformed into commercial real estate. : Since 1997, ILA started to sell refugees land. Its average contribution : to the treasury amounted to $1.0 billion a year, excluding : “compensation” to the Kibbutz. One donum in the centre sells for : $1,000,000. : In 1998, 110 Kibbutz were allowed to expand their residential area : (i.e., zoning from agriculture to residential) by 115% which can be sold : to others. ‘Others’ may include any Jew living anywhere, not : necessarily Israeli. 150,000 residential units were planned in the : Kibbutz, out of a general plan for 500,000. : Ariel Sharon, who expropriated for himself a farm of several thousand : donums in Iraq Al Manshiya (Kiryat Gat), said: “… The only way to absorb : the immigrants was by taking land from the Kibbutz... I knew the : (economic) hardship they are experiencing… it is better they build on : the land and sell houses…” : The Implications : The implications of such disposition of refugees’ land are many fold. : First, as long as the land is leased, not sold, the legal rights of the : original owners are not easily extinguished. The sale to a third party : will complicate the legal structure of the ownership and unwinding of : the sale transactions. : An interesting intervention was made by the impoverished Sephardic : community who did not enjoy the extravagant benefits showered on the : Kibbutz. They formed a group, Hakeshet Hamizrahit, which petitioned the : High Court this week against sale of land to the Kibbutz and stated that : “the land in question was largely expropriated from Palestinians and : thus transferring property rights to the inhabitants of the rural : communities means negating forever the Palestinian refugees’ right of : return”. : Second, the portion slated now for sale exceeds sixty billion US : dollars. This value belongs to the Palestinians, who, although they : will NEVER accept to sell their land, only to restitute (recover) it, : this amount could be allocated to a fund to pay for their material and : psychological damages and lost revenues. : Third, the Arab League has already resolved on 16 September 1998 to : apply to the UN to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the status : of the Palestinians property, to appoint a Custodian to monitor changes : to such property and report periodically to the UN and finally to : activate the UN Conciliation Commission on Palestine. This action by : the Arab League should now be activated and updated. : Recommendations: : 1. The Arab League should activate its previous resolution and to put it : into effect. : 2. The Arab League should apply to the UN to send, under the UN CCP : auspices, a fact-finding mission to report fully on the disposition of : the Palestinian property by the Israeli government. Such mission shall : list all transactions made by ILA and other Israeli government bodies : from 1948 till today, shall present to the General Assembly ways of : protecting the ownership of the Palestinians and shall determine the : monetary amounts which has been received by the Israeli treasury and : other bodies due to the transfer of ownership and the exploitation of : property for 52 years. : 3. The Palestine mission at the UN together with the Arab bloc should : lobby for a UN resolution which, : (a) condemns Israeli action of property transfer and urges Israel to : undo it, : (b) demands that Israel facilitates the work of the UN mission, : (c) request other countries, in accordance with relevant UN resolutions, : to supply any information, documents and maps they have on Palestinian : property. : 4. The Arab League should encourage Arab members of the Knesset to : resist the bill of 52 by all means possible. : 5. Consultations should be made as to the definition of Israeli actions : and its violation of the sanctity of private ownership in terms of : international law, Human Rights and Geneva Convention. Here, : appropriate NGO’s may be activated for public action. : These tasks are obviously not easy to implement. Nevertheless every : effort must be made to put them into effect. If no action is taken, the : resulting effect on the Palestine Question will be devastating. This : should be avoided at all costs. : Salman Abu Sitta : June 23, 2000 <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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