52 chapter two i. Amendment to The Israel Lands Administration Law (1960) Approved by the Knesset on August 3, 2009, this law implements broadbased land privatization measures. It stipulates that most of the land currently classified by the state as “absentees property” and owned by the Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons, along with some of the lands of demolished and evacuated Arab villages, and land otherwise seized from Palestinian citizens, can be sold to private investors and is rendered inapplicable to any future restitution claims. Further, this law bestows upon representatives of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth Le-Israel, hereafter ‘JNF’) the decisive authority over the land in a new Land Authority Council, set to replace the Israel Lands Administration (hereafter ‘ILA’) which currently oversees the use of 93 percent of the total land in Israel. Totalling about 800,000 dunums, these areas include the property of refugees currently located in mixed Arab-Jewish cities, along with land that has been zoned or planned for development. ii. Amendment to The Land (Acquisition for Public Purposes) Ordinance Law (1943) Approved on February 10, 2010, this new amendment, asserts state ownership of land confiscated under this law even including cases where the land has not been used for its original confiscation purpose. In other words, this law enables the state to put off using the confiscated land for its original confiscation purpose for seventeen years, and prohibits landowners from demanding the return of the land that is not used for the original confiscation purpose if it has been turned over to a third party, or if more than twenty-five years have passed since the confiscation. Originally a British Mandate-era law, this legislation has, since its inception, continuously been used by the state to enable the Minster of Finance to confiscate land for public purposes. Applied in conjunction with other laws such as The Land Acquisition Law (1953) and The Absentees’ Property Law (1950), this law serves as the fuel that drives state-led initiatives to confiscate Palestinian-owned land in Israel. It broadens the decisive powers of the Finance Minister to seize land, even permitting the Minister to announce new purposes. Evidently, this new amendment aims to preempt future potential lawsuits initiated by Palestinians to reclaim confiscated land. Not only has there been more than 25 years since the majority of Palestinian land was seized, but large sections of this land has been transferred to third party Zionist organizations, such as the JNF.