Land Confiscation Introduction 25 “[As farmers,] with our land lost; we lost our source of income and livelihood”. Interview with Awwad Abu-Qalbayn in Silwan, East Jerusalem (11 February 2013) The system of land confiscation encompasses an array of methods designed to transfer Palestinian possession of land to Israeli bodies and authorities. These differ from Prevention of Use and Access (discussed in Chapter II) methods in that confiscation is ultimately implemented as permanent and irreversible measure of land expropriation, whereas prevention of access affects situations temporarily in ‘adherence’ to the law of occupation. This is so, regardless of the fact that the Israeli occupation has not been a temporary one, as is required under international law. Whether or not confiscation is said, from a legal point of view, to be temporary or reversible initially, for the most part, confiscation predominantly concludes as a permanent act that amounts to colonization. For instance, when property is confiscated under the auspices of ‘absentee property’, it is expected to be held in trust by the Custodian for the ‘absentee’ owner. However, these properties are usually sold by the Custodian to third parties (exclusively Jewish-Israeli) after which the option of retrieving the property vanishes. This chapter will examine the legal mechanisms and case law pertaining to the issue of land confiscation. West Bank, Area C Land confiscation is pursued by manipulating relevant land laws that existed throughout Palestinian history. In order to fully comprehend how the methods of confiscation are executed, it is necessary to examine the various legal strata and their relevant provisions concerning land issues. Especially relevant are pre-1948 categories of land and the implication of categorization on ownership rights. Needless to say, the issue of land ownership rights is closely linked to the issue of land confiscation. For example, the declaration of ‘vacant’ land as ‘State Land’ is a prime method of land confiscation. As briefly described in the Introduction, the binding local legislation applied in the West Bank is derived from Jordanian land laws, which were applied between 1949 and 1967. However the earlier laws of the Ottoman Land Code (1274 H, 1858) and the legislation of the British Mandate were incorporated into the Jordanian laws and as such, constitute the majority of the current laws in place.88 The Jordanian legislator made minimal changes to the Ottoman Land Code and so, its provisions 88 B’Tselem, Under the Guise of Legality Israel’s Declarations of State Land in the West Bank (February 2012), 19; available from http://www.btselem.org/download/201203_under_the_guise_of_legality_ eng.pdf.