of equality is not mentioned as a constitutional right in Israel’s Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992)114, which acts as Israel’s Bill of Rights in absence of a constitution. In the absence of a constitutional right to equality, it is relegated to a secondary-level right, and is only considered if it can be derived from other rights granted by the Basic Law. Moreover, paragraph 10 of the Law, provides that, “[t]his Basic Law shall not affect the validity of any law in force prior to the commencement of the Basic Law.” A series of discriminatory laws adopted in the 1950s and 1960s thus continue to violate the fundamental right to equality of Palestinians. In order to facilitate the policy of “minimal fairness”, during the first 18 years after the creation of Israel, Palestinian citizenry was restricted to security zones and had military rule imposed on them. During the military rule period, Israel imposed strict means of control on Palestinian citizens, restricting the freedom of movement, assembly, work, press and speech, in addition to mass confiscation of land and property. This was possible because of the Emergency Regulations (Absentees’ Property) Law-1948, and the Absentees’ Property Law1950.115 These laws serve to expropriate individually and communally-owned Palestinian land.116 Palestinian citizens of Israel and refugees have thereby been deprived of title, access and use of their land, and even of compensation. Today, 93 percent of the land in Israel is owned either by the state or by quasigovernmental agencies (such as the Jewish National Fund) and administered by the Israel Land Authority, whose managerial council is composed of representatives from the government and the Jewish National Fund.117 The purpose of the Jewish National Fund, according to its Memorandum of Association is to systematically acquire land in Palestine “for the purpose of settling Jews on such lands”.118 This goal is reflected in a resolution that passed at the Seventh Zionist Congress, putting the latter on record as rejecting “unplanned, unsystematic, and philanthropic small-scale colonization” by the Jewish National Fund.119 Its Memorandum also stipulated that it could only lease land to Jews and prohibited it from selling any land it acquired.120 114 Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. 115 The Absentees’ Property Law, 5710 http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/E0B719E95E3B494885256F9A005AB90A. 116 For more information see: BADIL, Israeli Land Grab and Forced Population Transfer of Palestinians, A Handbook for Vulnerable Individuals and Communities (Bethlehem, Palestine: BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, 2013), http://www.badil.org/en/badil-news/1454-story-3. 117 For more information see: BADIL, “The Jewish National Fund: A Para-State Institution in the Service of Colonialism and Apartheid,” Al-Majdal, Winter - Spring 2010, http://www.badil.org/phocadownload/ Badil_docs/publications/al-majdal-43.pdf. 118 Walter Lehn, “The Jewish National Fund” 3, no. 4 (Summer 1974): 94. 119 Ibid. 120 See: Lehn and Davis, note 13 supra, pp. 31-32. 47