One of the most powerful arguments used against Israel is that it is “stealing private Palestinian land.” Of course, this is not only illegal, it is immoral and contrary to Jewish law. The source for this accusation, moreover, is the Civil Administration (CA), a branch of COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories), the IDF authority that operates the civil and judicial system in Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”).
It was recently reported that Israel intended to approve thousands of homes for “settlers” in Judea and Samaria, and “retroactively authorize illegally built settler homes on private Palestinian property.”
The CA also decided that some parts of Givat Eitam, a new area of Efrat in Gush Etzion, belonged to “private Palestinians.” There were, however, no adverse claims. Last summer, nine fully built homes in Elazar in Gush Etzion were destroyed by the CA because tiny areas of the homes were thought to have been built on “private Palestinian land.” For the same reason, the IDF destroyed Amona, and nine homes in Ofra last year. It caused great suffering, with great losses, and no one benefited.
The CA did not offer proof or documentation for their claims. And the High Court approved.
A newly passed Settlement Regulation Law provides a legal mechanism for authorizing homes to be built in this area, while compensating Palestinian landowners who have a valid claim.
Although Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit opposes the law, he said that in some instances it might be possible to allow seizing private Palestinian land. According to the new law, special courts would be established to adjudicate land disputes. The CA, however, has exclusive control of the documents related to land own ership and has the sole right to determine what “private Palestinian land” is or not. The CA is both judge and jury, and there is no appeal.
The only way to know if land is owned by someone is through the Land Registry. In Israel that is straightforward. But in Judea and Samaria, it means going to the Jordanian Land Registry (taba) – which is not open to Jews/Israelis, with one exception. The only organization which has permission is the CA – which does not allow access to Jews.
Requests to the CA for information about the documentation and evidence that Jews are stealing and building on “private Palestinian land” were rebuffed.
According to the CA: “The land registries in the Judea and Samaria Region are covered under the confidentiality of the registry under the Order Concerning Land (Examination of Registries) (Judea and Samaria) (No. 1737), 5764-2014.”
Therefore, the transfer of information relating to these registries “may only be granted to the holder of a right as defined in the order, and to whomever holds the right under the conditions specified therein.”
This means that until or unless COGAT and the CA allow access to the documents, there is no way to evaluate if their determination that the land in question is owned “privately” is true. There is also no way of knowing if their decisions are valid. They are secret and cannot be examined or questioned. Who are they protecting and why?
This practice by COGAT and the CA has led to the destruction of thousands of Jewish homes backed by court orders without ever having to prove their contention. It has led to Jewish suffering and hardship. It has not benefited any Arabs, since the areas are usually inside or near Jewish communities. This practice has shattered Israel’s moral image and its international standing. What purpose does it serve?
For those who don’t get it, this is how COGAT and the CA contribute to the Palestinian narrative: “The Israeli occupation of Palestine (and Palestinians) means, you steal our land, our livelihood, and then you steal our identity and our souls.”
Lack of transparency by COGAT and the Civil Administration regarding the status of land in Judea and Samaria has led to confusion, tragedy and bitterness. It wastes taxpayer funds and human resources and it accomplishes nothing. It only serves Israel’s enemies. Why do the IDF, the Minister of Defense and the Prime Minister’s Office support it?
Is the IDF Ready for All-Out War?
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,060, January 10, 2019
This in today’s Jerusalem Post:
Still more evidence of the iDF’s pro-Arab and anti-Orthodox Jewish bias. The IDF’s military police, along with the Border Police, has used similar methods to those that these soldiers are accused of when repressing Jewish demonstrators. And no one arrested those soldiers.
This from Arutz Sheva. While supporting Arab land claims in Judea-Samaria, the IDF is unprepared for war with the Arabs:
This is from the website of the spme organization, (Scholars for Peace in the Middle East), who reprinted it from the Jerusalem Post. Written by Tovah Lazaroff, one of the Post’s better reporters:
As Moshe Dann points out, Israel’s upholding of Arab’s false claims of land ownership only encourages the foreign BDS’ers, such as the Parliament of Ireland.
@ yamit82: The Jordanian land registry should not be considered legal because the Jordanians never had a legally valid claim to sovereignty over the land. They were simply military occupiers for a brief time. The Ottaman land registries are relevant. But no Ottaman deed has ever been produced by the Arabs claiming to own the “privately owned land” to prove that they actually do own the land. Not one claimant has ever produced a title deed to even one durum of the land that the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled is “privately owned Arab land.” As Mr. Dann explains, Jews are not even allowed by the civil administration to examine the land registers, although Arabs are. And the Jews living on the land are not allowed by the court to appear before it to dispute the Arabs’ claims or put forward their own claims. THe most vicious type of racial discrimination imaginable against Jews. Self-administered anti-semitism.
@ david melech: All very relevant points, David. As I explain in my earlier posts, no documentary evidence has ever been produced in a court of law that any of this supposed “privately owned Arab land” ever was owned by an Arab. Nothing from any land register. Nothing.Not even Jordanian land deeds have been produced in court. The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that Jordanian laws apply and must be enforced by the “Civil administration” (actually a military administration). Allegedly, some of this “privately owned Arab land” was given to the Arabs by the Jordanian occupation authorities between 1949 and 1967, according to the civil administration. But eve these alleged title deeds, which would be illegal even if they exist, have ever been produced in court or even published anywhere. The lie of “privately owned Arab land” has simply been manufactured by Palestinian Arabs and pro-Palestinian Israeli organizations such as Peace Now and B’stelem, then ratified and enforced by the Attorney General the Supreme Court, and the “civil administration, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever. It has then been used by the civil administration to evict thousands of Jews from their homes, demolish their homes, and destroy whole Jewish villages. Barbarous! Treason!
Somehow the Israeli public and pro-Israel people abroad must be made aware of this atrocious state of affairs–that control of Israel’s government has been hijacted by anti-Zionists who enforce illegal edicts that will inevitably result, in time, in Israel’s destruction.
The Supreme Court has ruled that all land in Judea-Samaria is ‘privately owned Arab land,” unless the Attorney General, whom the Court appoints, can prove otherwise to their satisfaction. And the Attorney General, who is always an Arab sympathizer like the “justices” who appoint him, almost never attempts to prove that no Arab owns the land. The government can only dispute the Arab claims if the Attorney General agrees to dispute them.
The following article in today’s Arutz Sheva refers to certain lawyers who are appointed by the Attorney General to insure that all government officials, including the Prime minister, obey the courts dictates:
This from today’s Arutz Sheva:
The ‘gatekeepers” are “legal advisors” appointed by the Attorney General , who is appointed by the Supreme, with the power to veto any action by athe Prime Minister or other cabinet members or ddeputy cabinet members that they or the attorney general disapprove of. In theory, they are supposed to veto actions only on legal grounds, but in practice they often veto them simply because they disagree with them on political grounds. And they are increasingly open about this. They are also tasked by the AG to report to them any actions by the Prime Minister or cabinet members that they think might be a basis for prosecuting them. This is the origin of the current criminal investigation of Netanyahu. Criminal investigations of him, all of them on absurd charges that would be immediately thrown out of court by any impartial judge, have been continuous against him since 1996. Also,against Leiberman and many other cabinet members. This enables the AG and the Supremes to fire at their discretion any official whose policies they dislike, and/or to blackmail them into following pro-Arab, collaborationist policies.
This is how the Supreme Court, the AG, and the lawyers assigned to “advise” the military command have been able to declare any land they wish to be declared “privately owned Arab land,” even if, as is nearly always the case, there is not a shred of evidence that any Arab ever owned it.
@ david melech:
Jews took the land from the Canaanite tribes and others took the Land from the Jews. Must recognize some minimal standards today and that is land registry under the Ottomans and Jordanians. By your standards, we should confiscate all Church property. (they don’t pay taxes anyway)
MR Dann , what is private p land? Is land that was owned prior to 1917? Did the brits register land purchases? If so was that not illegal? What right did hashmits have to register land during their illegal occupation?
But who fights for land legally purchased in the Golan area by Rothschild?