(ILA) and the Israel Lands Council. It also defined “Israel Lands” as lands in the
ownership of the State, the JNF, and the Development Authority. The land they
manage is prohibited from being transferred, even to its rightful owner. Up until
this day, laws are still enacted by the Israeli regime to forcibly transfer Palestinians
and assert its grip on their lands, such as the 2009 Land Law Reform,20 which
prevents Palestinian refugees and IDPs from asserting any claims to land within
the Israeli judicial system.
Due to the exclusionary and discriminatory policies at the hands of the State and
its proxy institutions such as the JNF, Palestinian citizens of Israel are effectively
blocked from leasing land on 80 percent of State land.21 As explained above, the
land was confiscated from Palestinians, then administered for the purposes of
Israeli state-building, and finally the land was and continues to be privately sold.22
C. Restriction on Use and Access
In addition to the use of force and the enactment of different laws mentioned
above, Israel restricts Palestinian use and access to their lands by refusing to
recognize the villages in which Palestinian communities have been living in for
centuries (1) but also by designating them as natural parks and reserves (2).
1. Unrecognized Villages in the Naqab Desert
The Naqab (Negev) desert comprises 60 percent of the total area of Israel.
Palestinian Bedouin population owns 5.5 percent of it, which represents 600,000
dunums.23 Bedouins have lived on their ancestral lands for centuries. However,
20 Enacted to facilitate the transfer of land ownership between the ILA and the JNF, the
2009 Land Law Reform grounded a transitional process of state-owned to privatelyowned land by a bona fide buyer, making it impossible for Palestinians to claim rights
on their lands. See BADIL, Land Confiscation and Denial of Use, 31.
21 ADALAH, The Inequality Report: The Palestinian Arab Minority in Israel, March 2011, 32,
Available at https://www.adalah.org/uploads/oldfiles/upfiles/2011/Adalah_The_
Inequality_Report_March_2011.pdf [Hereinafter: ADALAH, The inequality Report].
22 BADIL, Land Confiscation and Denial of Use, 31.
23 BADIL, Land Confiscation and Denial of Use, 40.
7
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