38 Israeli Land Grab and Forced Population Transfer of Palestinians Declaration Process The declaration process is not anchored in the law or in military legislation, but rather in the procedures of the Civil Administration alone.149 Among the requirements of the Civil Administration procedures is that the Custodian must sign a certificate specifying the location of the land for declaration accompanied by a map demonstrating the plot’s total area. A copy of this certificate must then be sent to the local village’s mukhtar who is then required to inform the villagers and affected parties to allow them to submit objections.150 Objections must be made within 45 days.151 If no objection is made within this time, the land is then considered ‘State Land’ which the Custodian may then take possession of. For instance in 1990, the Custodian declared 125 dunums of the Bil’in village land near Ramallah as State Land. However, it was recently discovered that the certificate of declaration does not even carry the signature of the village mukhtar which would ordinarily show confirmation that the certificate was delivered to him.152 As previously noted the Order Concerning Government Property also allows for the Custodian to deem any land as State Land even if it is retroactively shown not to be State Land provided he believed “in good faith” that they were State Lands.153 This means that if an affected party fails to lodge an objection to the declaration within 45 days, even if he can prove that the land is not State Land, he cannot proceed. Furthermore, huge legal costs and difficulties also strongly dissuade many affected individuals from submitting a complaint. Below are the requirements for filing an objection: - Payment of an administration fee and receipt thereof; - Authorized surveyor’s map delineating the plot of land in question; - An expert opinion on the agricultural cultivation of the land should the party be pursuing the Article 78 (Ottoman Land Code) argument.154 In practice, an objector must also call on the expertise of a lawyer who is familiar with the Civil Administration procedures. The objection is then heard by the Military Appeals Committee consisting of three members (bear in mind that the burden of 149 Michael Sfard and Emily Schaeffer, A Guide to Housing, Land and Property Law in Area C of the West Bank, February 2012, 46.Sfard, M., Schaeffer, E., et al., “A Guide to Housing Land and Property Law in Area C of the West Bank”, February 2012, p. 46. 150 Zamir, State Lands in Judea and Samaria: A Legal Review, 31. 151 Article 28 (a)Provisions Concerning Procedures at Appeals Committees (Judea and Samaria) 1987, 1987. 152 Sfard and Schaeffer, A Guide to Housing, Land and Property Law in Area C of the West Bank, 46. 153 Order Concerning Government Property (Judea and Samaria) 1967 Article 5. 154 Provisions Concerning Procedures at Appeals Committees (Judea and Samaria) 1987 Article 28(b).