that land that was registered in the High Commissioner’s name from the British government, which became “Israeli state land”. Invoking the 1943 Ordinance dating from the British era, Israel expropriated at least 1.85 million dunums, 92 percent of which were privately owned by Palestinians.9 To further expand its application to other categories of Palestinian land, Israel changed the definition of State Land so to encompass public lands, uncultivated lands as well as private but unregistered lands.10 In 1980, another modification of the law transformed all unregistered and uncultivated lands for 10 years into “State land.” As a result of these many different legislations enacted since the 1950s, 93 percent of the land in Israel was apportioned to be under governmental control,11 either directly owned by the government (67 percent), or indirectly by the Development Authority (13 percent)12 and the Jewish National Fund (13 percent).13 2. The Absentee Property Law and Subsequent Legislation Based on (British) Mandatory emergency regulations, military rule was immediately introduced after the war to further facilitate confiscation of the land. The Absentee Property Law of 1948 is one the most important legislation enacted to do so. Such law gave control over the property of an ‘absentee’ to a Custodian supposed to protect it until their return, which has been forbidden by 9 ADALAH, Land Acquisition Law (Actions and Compensation), accessed 15 February 2022, available at https://www.adalah.org/en/law/view/533 10 Lorenzo Kamel, “Israeli concept of ‘State Land’ Needs Another Look”, al-Monitor, 6 May 2013, Accessed 15 February 2022, Available at: https://www.al-monitor.com/ originals/2013/05/settlements-land-ownership-palestine-israel.html 11 Knesset, “The State of Israel as a Jewish State,” n.d., Accessed 15 February 2022, Available at: http://knesset.gov.il/constitution/ConstMJewishState.htm 12 The Development Authority is a body that was set up by the Israeli government in 1952 to administer the lands of Palestinian refugees and making them available to the state for its development plans. 13 The Jewish National Fund (JNF) has been Israel’s partner in transforming the land of displaced Palestinians into lands “legally owned” by the state and Zionist para-statal organizations. See: Alaa Mahajneh, “Situating the JNF in Israel’s Land Laws.” Al-Majdal 43, 2010, available at: https://www.badil.org/cached_uploads/ view/2021/05/06/al-majdal-43-1620308721.pdf 5