Israeli Concept of 'State Land' Needs Another Look
The belief that some Israeli settlements have been built on "state land" is based on a misinterpretation of past land-ownership practices, writes Lorenzo Kamel.
Last March, the Israeli Civil Administration made public that, over the last 33 years, 0.77% of the “land owned by the state” in the West Bank has been assigned to Palestinian residents as compared to the 39% allocated to settlers. This unequal treatment has attracted fierce criticism.
Nonetheless, such criticisms have often resorted to the same terminology and arguments used by those who uphold the legitimacy of the settlements, effectively giving credence to the idea that the colonies authorized by the Israeli authorities were built, to paraphrase David M. Philips in Commentary, on “state-owned” or “public” land, thus on “un-registered” lands, or areas ascribable to “absentee property owners.”
One of the main issues related to landownership in the Palestinian territories concerns the legal status of the area in question: “disputed territories,” according to the State of Israel; “occupied territories” for the rest of the international community. Such are issues of primary importance which, however, will take second place in this analysis. The attention will be instead focused on two lesser-known but equally relevant aspects.
The "translation" process
