Utolsó frissítés: 2026.06.04. — Szerző: Anti-Propaganda News Blog
Even before the state was proclaimed on May 14, 1948—while fighting raged between Zionist forces and the Palestinians — established military and civilian committees to take control of the land and other properties vacated by the Palestinian population. As soon as the state was declared, the Israeli government set about consolidating these various committees and establishing the legal instruments and administrative structures that would enable the „legal” seizure of Palestinian lands. In the years and decades that followed, new laws were enacted and amended as needed to ensure the expansion of the scope of land to be acquired.
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On June 24, the Israeli government issued a decree regarding abandoned property (Abandoned Property Ordinance) to take control of the property of Palestinians who had been driven out or had fled due to the fighting. Three days later, it adopted the decree on abandoned territories (Ordinance on Abandoned Areas), which gave the state broader control not only over vacant properties but also over entire „abandoned areas.” In July 1948, the Ministerial Committee for Abandoned Property was established, along with the office of Custodian of Abandoned Property. This enabled the state to organize the use of the land by Jews. Some of the land was allocated to agricultural communities, such as kibbutzim, while other areas—including orchards—were made available for use by companies. These various Jewish communities, companies, and private individuals harvested the abandoned grain fields, picked fruit from the abandoned orange and olive groves, mined stone from the abandoned quarries, and even sold the cacti growing in the barren areas for alcohol production. As for the houses in the evacuated villages, the Israeli government and army began demolishing homes and other buildings in hundreds of villages as early as 1948. (The actual number is estimated to be between 360 and 429, depending on the source’s definition of a „village.”) Between 1948 and 1953, the Jewish Agency (Jewish Agency) established 345 new Jewish settlements in Israel, most of which were built on land formerly occupied by Palestinian refugees. Houses in the cities were often used to house the new Jewish immigrants.
Temporary emergency regulations regarding the property of absent persons (Emergency Regulations Concerning the Property of Absentees) Its entry into force on December 2, 1948, marked a significant turning point in Israel’s approach to the land and other property of refugees. The legal focus shifted from the property itself to the refugee owner. Thus, unlike previous laws—which granted the state legal authority to seize property abandoned at a specific location— this new legislation allowed the state to seize any property anywhere that belonged to a person classified as „absent.” According to the law’s definition, an „absentee” was a person who, on or after November 29, 1947, was a citizen of an Arab state, was residing in an Arab country, were in any part of Palestine not under Jewish control, or „were in a place other than their usual place of residence, even if that place and their usual place of residence were both within the territory under Israeli occupation.” The “absent” (absentee) was thus an extremely broad, all-encompassing term that allowed the Israeli government to confiscate the land and other property of a wide range of people who, in the traditional sense of the word, were not even refugees. In fact, the law also allowed for the seizure of the land and property of a person who lived in the territory under Israeli occupation, left their home, and traveled even for a single day to a location within the territory under Israeli occupation, and then returned. The government replaced the Custodian of Abandoned Property with the Custodian of Absentee Property.
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On March 14, the Knesset passed the Absentee Property Law (Law on the Property of Absentees), which was an amended version of the previous temporary emergency regulations. An important new provision authorized the Custodian of Absentee Property for the first time to sell confiscated refugee lands to a special body to be established, the Development Authority (Development Authority). The latter was established by the Development Authority (Property Transfer) Act, which was passed on August 9, 1950. The law authorized the Development Authority to sell land to the state, and specifically to the Jewish National Fund (JNF)—an organization whose lands are reserved exclusively for the Jewish people. Thanks to this „legal” mechanism for dispossessing those who were absent, the Custodian worked in the early 1950s to legally register the refugee lands in the new Israeli land registers, and sold a vast amount of land to the Development Authority, which did not retain permanent control over it but resold it to the JNF. In 1960, the state and the JNF agreed to consolidate all the land they owned separately into a single Israeli Land Authority (Israel Land Administration) will be placed under the authority of a government agency.
Thus, the vast majority of refugee lands and buildings that still exist today are registered in the name of either the State of Israel, the Development Authority, or the JNF. As such, they are under the control of the Israel Land Administration Council (ILAC), which is the new name for the Israel Land Authority (pursuant to the Land Authority Law of August 2009). This law, however, allowed the ILAC to sell (i.e., privatize) a certain amount of the land under its supervision. As part of this process, the JNF exchanges urban land under its control for rural land; the urban land is then sold to private individuals. As a result, certain Palestinian refugee lands can now be sold to private individuals as well.
The confiscated lands were used to build Jewish towns, develop new agricultural areas, and for similar purposes. Some of the lands taken from refugees remain unused and uninhabited to this day. In some of these villages, abandoned Palestinian houses and other buildings still stand today. In other places—such as cities like Jerusalem—these buildings can command very high prices today. Numerous abandoned mosques still stand throughout Israel; some of which remain abandoned, while others have been converted into restaurants and art galleries. There are also numerous abandoned cemeteries, the most famous of which is the Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem.
As for the personal property, Jewish civil and military authorities began to make use of some of it almost immediately: they stored it in warehouses, sold it, leased it out, or destroyed whatever they deemed beyond salvage. Furniture found in abandoned houses was sometimes used to furnish the homes of new Jewish immigrants. At times, household items were simply stolen; looting was widespread. Under the law, agencies such as the Custodian of Absentee Property were required to keep records of funds derived from the sale or rental of refugee property under the name of the refugee owner, ostensibly with the aim of returning the funds to them later. However, these funds were quickly spent or transferred to the Development Authority to be used for the settlement of new immigrants. Although most of the movable property was sold long ago, the Custodian of Absentee Property still exercises control over some items today. For example, it oversees approximately 8,000 books that were taken from Palestinian homes in 1948 and are now housed in the National Library of Israel.
The above raises the question of Israel’s general stance on property restitution and/or compensation. Israel has consistently refused to return property (i.e., to return assets to their rightful owners), even when the owners actually returned and attempted to reclaim it. As for compensation, it has imposed numerous restrictions. First, it has refused to pay compensation for movable property—regardless of whether it was looted or inventoried during the war (household goods, vehicles, livestock and agricultural equipment, factory machinery, goods in stores and businesses, etc.)—despite having profited from the sale of such property. Second, regarding Palestinian property losses, Israel insisted that it was obligated to pay compensation only for privately owned property, thereby excluding communal lands, and in particular the communal lands of villages. Third, Israel insisted that the compensation program be part of a broader Arab-Israeli peace agreement.
Over the years, the Israeli Committee for the Restitution of Absentee Property has reached quiet agreements to pay compensation to certain Palestinians living outside the country. For their part, the majority of refugees rejected the idea of considering compensation, preferring instead to return to their land. In June 1973, Israel passed the Absentee Property (Compensation) Law (Absentees’ Property (Compensation) Act), which provided for compensation for claimants residing in Israel—including Palestinian residents of annexed East Jerusalem—while denying them the right to demand the return of their property. One of the law’s actual aims was to legitimize the reclamation of properties in the eastern part of the city that had been owned by Jews prior to 1948.
Michael Fischbach
Source:
Falah, Ghazi. “Israel’s ‘Judaization’ Policy in Galilee.” Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 20, No. 4 (Summer 1991): 69–85.
Michael R. Fischbach. Records of Dispossession: Palestinian Refugee Property and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. New York: Columbia University Press, The Institute for Palestine Studies Series, 2003.
Golan, Arnon. “The Transfer to Jewish Control of Abandoned Arab Land During the War of Independence.” In S. Ilan Troen and Noah Lucas, eds., Israel: The First Decade of Independence, pp. 403–440. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Golan, Arnon. “The Transformation of Abandoned Arab Rural Areas.” Israel Studies Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 1997): 94–110.
Nakkara, Hanna Dib. “Israeli Land Seizure Under Various Defense and Emergency Regulations.” Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 14, No. 2 (Winter 1985): 13–34.
