Summary
The 1950 law that, in Stateless Citizenship (2013), is the first of a masterly sequence of laws aimed at the expropriation of Arab land: it defined all those who were expelled, fled, or left the country between 1948 and 1952 as “absentees” and their property as “absentee property”, transferred to a Custodian of Absentee Property and eventually used for Jewish settlement (Stateless Citizenship (2013), PDF p.114-115).
Details
- Without being openly racially discriminatory, provisions in the law ensured that the ‘absent’ persons were understood not to include Jews; it was also applied to Palestinians who involuntarily became citizens of Israel, of whom at the time about half (an estimated 40,000 to 75,000 people) were not at their usual place of residence as defined by the law, and were defined as “present absentees” and prevented from reclaiming their lands — see Present Absentees (PDF p.115).
- Don Peretz as quoted: “Every Arab in Palestine who … left his town or village after November 29, 1947, was liable to be classified as an absentee under the regulations” (Peretz 1958, 152; PDF p.115).
- Assessments of the total amount of land Israel defines as “abandoned” and claims ownership over range between 4.2 and 5.8 million dunums, and between 1948 and 1952 alone Israel built 350 of the 370 new Jewish-only settlements on lands appropriated under the law (PDF p.115-116).
- The law was severely criticized by Arab and Jewish voices and Members of Knesset for granting broad executive powers to the Custodian without effective monitoring; Tawfiq Tubi, as quoted via Sabri Jiryis: “The real assignment of the honourable custodian is to steal more and more [land]” (Jiryis 1976, 87; PDF p.116).
Related pages
Stateless Citizenship (2013), Present Absentees, Don Peretz, Tawfiq Tubi, Sabri Jiryis, Israel Lands Administration, Jewish National Fund