65, 66, 67 , , 65 66 67 Year 1943 1950 Law Stated Objective of the Law Scope of the Law Effect of the Law Land This British Mandate-era law Acquisition for allows the Finance Minister Public Purposes to confiscate land for “public Ordinance and purposes.” Public purpose its amendments is defined as “any purpose certified by the Minister of Finance to be a public purpose.”65 The 2010 amendment allows the state not to use the confiscated land for the originally designated public purpose for 17 years, and prevents landowners from demanding the return of confiscated land not used for the original declared purpose if it has been transferred to a third party, or if more than 25 years have elapsed since the confiscation. The law was used to expropriate Palestinian land. Absentee Property Law This law was adopted by Israel and was further amended in 1964, 1978 and in 2010. This Law and its amendments granted the Minister broad powers to declare new purposes which would fall under the definition public purposes. The Law defined ‘absentee’ broadly so that it applied to every Palestinian resident who had left their usual place of residence in Palestine after the adoption of the partition of Palestine resolution by the UN in November 1947. Palestinians within Israel who had remained on their land who could be identified as enemies were deemed “present absentees” and also had their property confiscated. The Law established that absentee property was to be transferred to the Custodian of Absentee Property for protection and to facilitate its use for development by the state.66 The Custodian was not allowed to sell the property. The 25-year lapse and potential transfer to a third party prevent Palestinians from submitting lawsuits to reclaim confiscated land. This law stripped By considering both Palestinian ‘absentees’ all refugees and IDPs of Palestinians that fled their property rights. their homes after Once the properties November 1947, the were acquired by the properties belonging Custodian, the ability to 750,000 displaced of Israel through the Palestinians of the 1948 roll-out of additional War were confiscated laws in partnership with and placed under government and noncustodianship. The government agencies to Custodian acquired one utilize and privatize the million dunums (1000 land became possible. km2) of land by 1950.67 While the law technically provided for protection Custodian-held property, this was not the case. Significant portions of the land were transferred to the Development Authority from the Custodian. 65 Yifat Holzman-Gazit, Land Expropriation in Israel: Law, Culture and Society, (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016), 13. 66 David Kretzmer, The Legal Status of Arabs in Israel 49, (Boulder: Westview Press, 1990): 55. 67 George Bisharat, “Land, Law, and Legitimacy in Israel and the Occupied Territories,” American University Law Review 43, no. 2 (Winter 1994): 514 [hereinafter Bisharat, “Land, Law”]. 28