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Absentees' Property Law, 5710-1950

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aliasesAbsentees' Property Law, Absentees' Property Law 5710 (1950)

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Summary

Israel’s Absentees’ Property Law, 5710-1950, passed by the Knesset on 14 March 1950: section 1 defines an “absentee” by reference to the period from 29 November 1947 until a declaration that the state of emergency declared on 19 May 1948 has ceased — a legal owner or holder of property in the area of Israel who in that period was a national or citizen of Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Trans-Jordan, Iraq or the Yemen, was in one of those countries or in any part of Palestine outside the area of Israel, or was a Palestinian citizen who left his ordinary place of residence for a place outside Palestine before 1 September 1948 or for a place in Palestine held by forces that sought to prevent the establishment of the State of Israel or fought against it after its establishment — and vests all absentees’ property automatically in a Custodian of Absentees’ Property appointed through the Minister of Finance, giving the Custodian the owner’s status, powers to manage, lease, sell businesses, expel occupiers, demolish unauthorised buildings and release or confirm property, while barring him from selling immovable property except to a Development Authority, if one is established, at not less than official value; non-absentee confirmation under section 27(a) is mandatory on application for the two stated cases, while confirmation under section 27(b) and release under section 28 are in his sole discretion and require a government-appointed special committee’s recommendation, the Custodian’s certificates are presumptive evidence and a Minister of Defence certificate on who held a place is conclusive, and the Law replaces the Emergency Regulations (Absentees’ Property), 5709-1948 from 31 March 1950 (Absentees’ Property Law, 5710-1950, PDF p.1-20).

What the file is

The English text of the Law in one 20-page file, about 9,423 words in the text copy: sections 1-39 on PDF p.1-19, signatories on PDF p.19, and the passage footnote and footnotes 1-18 on PDF p.20, followed on PDF p.20 by closing matter identifying the source as Laws of the State of Israel: Authorized Translation from the Hebrew, Volume 4, Government Printer, Jerusalem, p. 68-82, with a February 2007 Israel Law Resource Center line and its URL, and listing six amendment dates — (6.3.51)(14.2.56)(3.19.58)(2.2.65)(8.7.67)(8.8.67) — whose texts are not in the file. The text copy was checked against the original at PDF p.1, 4, 10, 14, 16 and 19-20; the original reads the same, including the printed slips recorded in Section by section and Open questions. No Hebrew text, table or figure appears in the file, apart from Hebrew-calendar dates throughout.

Section by section

  • Section 1, Interpretation — definitions (PDF p.1-2). “property” includes immovable and movable property, moneys, a vested or contingent right in property, goodwill and any right in a body of persons or in its management. “absentee” is defined as in the Summary, for a person and, in section 1(b)(2), for a body of persons all of whose members, partners, shareholders, directors or managers are absentees, or whose management is decisively controlled by absentees, or all of whose capital is in absentees’ hands. “Palestinian citizen” means a person who on 29 November 1947 or thereafter was a Palestinian citizen under the Palestinian Citizenship Orders, 1925-1941, Consolidated, including a Palestinian resident with no nationality or citizenship or whose nationality or citizenship was undefined or unclear. “body of persons” covers a body in or outside Palestine, incorporated or not, registered or not, including a company, partnership, cooperative society, society under the Law of Societies of 3 August 1909, any other juridical person and any institution owning property. “absentees’ property” is property whose legal owner in the defined period was an absentee or which an absentee then held or enjoyed, excluding movable property exempt from attachment or seizure under section 3 of the Civil Procedure Ordinance, 1938. “vested property” is property vested in the Custodian; “held property” is vested property actually held by him, including property acquired in exchange for vested property; “released property” is property released under section 28; “area of Israel” is the area in which the law of the State of Israel applies; “bill” is a bill of exchange, cheque, promissory note or other negotiable instrument.
  • Section 2, Custodian of Absentees’ Property (PDF p.2). The Minister of Finance appoints, by order in Reshumot, a Custodianship Council for Absentees’ Property and designates its chairman, who is called the Custodian. The Custodian may sue and be a party to any proceeding, is entitled to representation by the Attorney-General or his representative, and on his ceasing to hold office his functions, powers, rights and duties pass automatically to the Minister of Finance and then to a successor Custodian.
  • Section 3, Appointment of inspectors, agents and employees (PDF p.2-3). The Custodian may, with the Minister of Finance’s written approval, appoint inspectors and delegate any power except appointing inspectors, with notice in Reshumot; he may appoint agents to manage held property and fix their pay, and appoint officials and employees with State-employee status.
  • Section 4, Vesting of absentees’ property in Custodian (PDF p.3). All absentees’ property vests in the Custodian from publication of his appointment or the day it became absentees’ property, whichever is later; every right an absentee had passes automatically, and the Custodian’s status is the same as was the owner’s. Proceeds are dealt with like the property yielding them. Vested property remains vested until released under section 28 or ceasing to be absentees’ property under section 27, and may be taken over wherever the Custodian finds it. Property acquired in exchange for vested property becomes held property.
  • Section 5, Identity of absentee unknown (PDF p.3). Unknown identity does not prevent property being absentees’, vested, held or released property.
  • Section 6, Handing over property to Custodian (PDF p.3). A person possessing absentees’ property must hand it over; debts and other obligations to an absentee are paid or discharged to the Custodian.
  • Section 7, Care of held property, expenses and investments (PDF p.3). The Custodian shall take care of held property, himself or through consenting others, and may incur expenses and make investments necessary for its care, maintenance, repair or development or similar purposes.
  • Section 8, Absentees’ businesses (PDF p.3-4). The Custodian may manage a business on an absentee’s behalf, indicating or not that he manages it, and may always sell or lease the whole or part; for an individual’s business he may liquidate it, and for a partnership, company or cooperative society all of whose partners, shareholders or members are absentees he may wind it up by order in Reshumot, conducted as a court-ordered winding up under the Partnership Ordinance, Companies Ordinance or Cooperative Societies Ordinance as applicable, with the Custodian as irreplaceable liquidator. The partnership/company wording in section 8(a)(2) is conflated as printed; see Open questions.
  • Section 9, Payments to dependants, absentees and trusts (PDF p.4). The Custodian may grant a dependant an allowance from the absentee’s held property as he thinks necessary for maintenance, capped at 50 pounds per month per person, may pay one dependant for several with family ties, may grant an allowance to the absentee himself if necessary for his maintenance, and may expend trust income from vested property for the trust’s purposes.
  • Section 10, Expulsion (PDF p.4-5). Where vested immovable property is occupied by a person the Custodian thinks has no right to occupy it, his signed certificate describing the property has the effect of an expulsion judgment; filed in the Execution Office it is executed as such, as an urgent matter with seven days to relinquish. An occupier who proves some substance in a claim of right to the Chief Execution Officer may get a stay to apply to court, and a court that finds his right annuls the certificate and proceedings.
  • Section 11, Demolition and discontinuance of building (PDF p.5-6). For building on vested immovable property without the Custodian’s written permission he may order discontinuance within a prescribed time, demolition, and demolition expenses paid by those responsible; contravening a posted discontinuance order is an offence under section 35(a), a demolition order is executed through the Execution Office, an aggrieved person may appeal within seven days to the District Court, whose decision is final and which does not stay implementation unless a judge orders, and the Custodian may retain materials, tools and implements. “Building” bears its Town Planning Ordinance, 1936 meaning.
  • Section 12, Rent Restrictions Ordinances (PDF p.6-8). Pre-vesting occupiers of vested property protected by the Rent Restrictions (Dwelling-Houses) Ordinance, 1940 or Rent Restrictions (Business Premises) Ordinance, 1941, or their successors, remain protected after vesting. For dwellings and business premises let by the Custodian those Ordinances apply with the lease rent, as reduced on appeal, as standard or maximum rent; the Minister of Finance may prescribe rent-fixing rules; a lessee may appeal to the Magistrates’ Court, which may confirm or reduce the rent, finally. Where a protected occupier’s vacation is in the Custodian’s opinion required for development of the place or area, he may, after providing suitable alternative accommodation, make a vacation order with expulsion-judgment effect, appealable within fourteen days to the District Court only for lack of suitable alternative accommodation, the appeal staying execution and the court’s decision being final.
  • Section 13, Cultivators (Protection) Ordinance not to apply (PDF p.8). An occupier of vested property that is a holding under that Ordinance is not protected by it unless immediately before vesting he occupied by virtue of that protection.
  • Section 14, Cultivator and his right to the produce (PDF p.8). A person to whom the Custodian hands a citrus grove, vineyard, other plantation or other agricultural land for cultivation enjoys the produce on the stipulated terms, with priority over a charge vested in another person theretofore, that charge extending to the Custodian’s income from the property.
  • Section 15, Charges and attachment (PDF p.8). Vesting does not exonerate property from a prior mortgage, pledge, other charge or right of tenure or use. No execution, Land Transfer Ordinance section 14 act, or recourse to sections 8, 9 or 10 of the Law Concerning the Partition of Immovable Property in respect of vested property except by the Custodian’s written permission or, if permission applied for after 31 March 1950 was not given within a year, on that year’s expiry. An attachment does not prevent the Custodian relinquishing control; the attachment then applies to the consideration received.
  • Section 16, Extent of responsibility of Custodian and persons acting under him (PDF p.8-9). A person who took over or acted in respect of property in the honest and reasonable but mistaken belief it was absentees’ property bears no civil responsibility beyond what he would bear if it had been absentees’ property.
  • Section 17, Validity of transactions (PDF p.9). A good-faith transaction between the Custodian and another person over property he then considered vested remains in force even if proved not vested.
  • Section 18, Property erroneously considered vested (PDF p.9). After a court decision that property is not vested, the Custodian shall, subject to section 17, hand over the property or its consideration as the court directed or to the person he received it from, applying to court if that person is unknown; where he himself finds property is not vested, he may hand it over to the person he thinks entitled to possession.
  • Section 19, Limitation of powers of Custodian (PDF p.9-11). For vested immovable property the Custodian shall not sell or otherwise transfer ownership, except that if a Development Authority is established under a Law of the Knesset he may sell it to that Authority at not less than official value; he shall not lease for over six years except to that Authority, at annual rent not less than 4.8 per cent of official value, or to a lessee who undertakes to cultivate or develop the property to his satisfaction. A voluntary partition of musha’ property is not a transfer. Leases over three years are outside the Land Transfer Ordinance, though registrable at his application. “Official value” is computed from 1947-1948 tax assessments: 16 2/3 times net annual value for urban-tax property and for an industrial building under the Rural Property Tax Ordinance, 1942, 300 times the tax for rural categories 1, 2, 3, 4 or 17 (as if in category 1), 75 times the tax for other rural categories, and 16 2/3 times a hypothetical net annual value for other property, with a Minister of Finance power to reduce rates for property damaged, neglected or similarly limited. A voidable charge may be voided only for a consideration or in accordance with the conditions of the charge, and a waivable right may be waived only for a consideration. Section 19(f) preserves the Minister of Agriculture’s powers under the Emergency Regulations (Cultivation of Waste Lands) 5708-1948.
  • Section 20, Debts of absentees (PDF p.11). The Custodian shall not pay an absentee’s debt or discharge his obligation except for taxes, rates or similar charges, a debt proved to his complete satisfaction, or under a competent court’s judgment, and only to the extent of that absentee’s held property. A court may postpone such a claim’s hearing for fuller evidence and strike out or dismiss a claim not proved beyond all reasonable doubt. The Minister of Finance may by regulations let the Custodian postpone taxes and similar charges on categories of vested immovable property.
  • Section 21, Duty to make notification (PDF p.11-12). Holders, managers and enjoyers of vested property, companies with absentee-registered securities, and partnerships with absentee partners and each partner, must notify the Custodian in writing with full particulars within thirty days of the appointment’s publication, of vesting, of coming to hold, or of a person becoming an absentee, as applicable, and must deliver returns, accounts, documents and information he requires; a notification due before 31 March 1950 could be made until 30 April 1950 without prosecution for lateness.
  • Section 22, Prohibited acts (PDF p.12-13). Without the Custodian’s written consent — which may be given before or after the fact — no one may hold, manage, deal with, relinquish, transfer or hand over vested property except to the Custodian, pay a vested debt or obligation except to the Custodian, or act under an absentee’s power of attorney; an advocate may represent an absentee then in the area of Israel, and an absentee outside it only with the Attorney-General’s written consent. A contravening act is null and void, as is any subsequent transfer of a bill so transferred. No act over vested property may be registered in the Land Register without his prior written permission or a court judgment, and a contravening registration shall be deleted on his application. The onus of proving an act predated vesting or absentee status, or had consent, lies on the person contending it.
  • Section 23, Transfers to be void (PDF p.13-14). A transfer to an absentee or for his benefit between 1 April 1948 and publication of the Custodian’s appointment, made with intent to smuggle property or its consideration to Palestine outside the area of Israel or to Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Saudi-Arabia, Trans-Jordan, Iraq or the Yemen, is null and void, as is a transfer from an absentee in that period for fictitious or insufficient or no consideration or under unfair pressure. Such property is regarded as vested, and the parties are responsible to the Custodian for it or its value; he may require its handing over, appealable within thirty days to the District Court of Jerusalem and then to the Supreme Court as a Court of Civil Appeal. The onus of proving absence of smuggling intent, full consideration or absence of unfair pressure lies on the person contending it.
  • Section 24, Partnership with an absentee partner (PDF p.14). After a section 21(c) notification the Custodian may participate in management in the absentee partner’s place only after notice to the other partners within six months; until then they manage as usual; without a notification he may participate at any time after notice. Once authorised he may, regardless of the partnership contract, leave and receive the absentee partner’s share or dissolve the partnership by notice, and is liable for partnership debts only to the extent of that partner’s held property value.
  • Section 25, Management of joint property (PDF p.14-15). Where part of immovable property has vested, the Custodian may participate in managing the whole with the non-absentee owners, with the absentee’s rights.
  • Section 26, Absentees’ property which is a bill (PDF p.15). A bill vests even if not delivered to or come into the Custodian’s hands; he is exempt from presentation, notice of dishonour and protest, and such omission does not in itself release any party to the bill.
  • Section 27, Confirmation to non-absentee (PDF p.15). If the Custodian thinks a person definable as an absentee under section 1(b)(1)(iii) left his residence for fear the enemies of Israel might harm him, or otherwise than by reason or for fear of military operations, he shall on application confirm in writing that he is not an absentee. He may in his sole discretion, subject to section 29, confirm a person then lawfully in the area of Israel as not an absentee even though definable as one, if he thinks him capable of managing his property efficiently and not aiding the enemies of Israel in so doing. A confirmation has effect from the day it is given, unless it states an earlier or later date; from then the property ceases to be absentees’ property and held property is handed over to the person the Custodian thinks entitled to possession.
  • Section 28, Release of vested property (PDF p.15-16). The Custodian may in his sole discretion, subject to section 29, release vested property by signed certificate; the property ceases to be absentees’ property and pre-vesting rights revert to their holder or successor. He may stipulate that other property become held property in exchange. Sold property becomes released property passing to the purchaser, and the consideration, and consideration for voiding a charge or waiving a right, becomes held property.
  • Section 29, Recommendations of committee (PDF p.16). The Custodian shall not exercise section 27(b) or section 28 powers unless a special committee appointed by the Government has recommended it for each case or a class of cases; the committee’s appointment is published in Reshumot.
  • Section 30, Rules of evidence (PDF p.16-17). The Custodian’s certificates that a person or body is an absentee, and that property is absentees’ property, stand until the contrary is proved; a Minister of Defence certificate that a place in Palestine was at a particular time held by forces which sought to prevent the establishment of the State of Israel or fought against it after its establishment is conclusive evidence of its contents; Custodian-certified copies and written confirmations are prima facie evidence; the Custodian and his staff need not produce documents or testify on matters provable under this section unless the court directs; documents purporting to be signed, issued, given or delivered by the Minister of Defence, Minister of Finance or Custodian are taken to have been so until the contrary is proved; and the plea that a person is not an absentee under section 1(b)(1)(iii) only because he had no control over the causes of his leaving shall not be heard. The printed text passes from subsection (f) to subsection (h), with no subsection (g).
  • Section 31, Plea that property is absentees’ property reserved to Custodian (PDF p.17). A court shall not entertain that plea in a civil proceeding unless the Custodian is a party; if raised without him and found to have some substance, the court invites him to join and considers the plea only if he does.
  • Section 32, Custodian’s remuneration and expenses (PDF p.17). On a transfer under the Law, on property ceasing to be absentees’ property under section 27, and on release under section 28, remuneration of 4 per cent of the property’s value is due to the State from the absentee, reducible or waivable by the Minister of Finance; value is official value for immovable property, a willing-seller/willing-purchaser free-market price in the Custodian’s opinion for other property, or the actual sale price if sold. All Custodian expenses for safeguarding, maintaining, repairing or developing such property, including travel, legal costs and advocates’, agents’ and others’ remuneration, plus 6 per cent annual interest, are likewise due, are a first charge on all the absentee’s or owner’s property, may be deducted from moneys, and the Custodian may withhold a section 27 confirmation or section 28 certificate until they are discharged.
  • Section 33, Fees (PDF p.18). The Minister of Finance may by order in Reshumot prescribe fees for the Custodian’s certificates, confirmations, permits, documents and other acts.
  • Section 34, Dealing before appointment of Custodian (PDF p.18). The Minister of Finance may confirm by notice in Reshumot that a person who dealt with absentees’ property between 29 November 1947 and publication of the Custodian’s appointment did so to the best of his ability, in good faith, intending to hand it over, and did hand it over at about that publication; such dealings are then lawful and justified, and no act in them grounds a charge or claim unless proved beyond all reasonable doubt to have been done with malicious intent or gross negligence.
  • Section 35, Offences (PDF p.18-19). Contravening section 22(a) or a section 11 order, concealing absentees’ property or not handing over property, or wilfully delivering materially false information, is punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment or a fine up to five hundred pounds or both; not delivering required material, negligently delivering materially false information, or wilfully obstructing the Custodian or his staff, by up to six months or one hundred pounds or both. Directors and officers of a guilty body of persons are likewise guilty unless they prove lack of knowledge or that they took all appropriate preventive steps. Prosecution requires the Attorney-General’s bringing or written consent.
  • Section 36, Notices, etc. (PDF p.19). Custodian notices not requiring Reshumot publication may be sent by registered post, deemed delivered ten days after posting unless proved received earlier, or delivered by publication in Reshumot without naming the addressee; Reshumot publication is deemed delivery to everyone concerned on the publication day.
  • Section 37, Replacement of Regulations (PDF p.19). The Law replaces the Emergency Regulations (Absentees’ Property), 5709-1948 from 31 March 1950, but is read as one with them, those Regulations being deemed a Law amended by this Law.
  • Section 38, Validations of acts (PDF p.19). An act done before 31 March 1950 that would have been valid if this Law’s text as at that date had then been in force is deemed validly done.
  • Section 39 (PDF p.19). The Minister of Finance is charged with implementation and may make implementation regulations. The section’s printed heading is “Interpretation”, as printed; see Open questions.
  • Signatories and passage (PDF p.19-20). Signed by David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister, Eliezer Kaplan, Minister of Finance, and Chaim Weizmann, President of the State. Passed by the Knesset on 25th Adar, 5710 (14th March 1950) and published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 37 of 2nd Nisan, 5710 (20th March, 1950), p. 86 — the text prints “Sefer Ho-Chukkim”, as printed. Footnotes 1-18, listed in Evidence, follow on PDF p.20, with the closing source and amendments matter recorded in What the file is.

Key passages

  • “all absentees’ property is hereby vested in the Custodian” (section 4(a)(1), PDF p.3)
  • “the status of the Custodian shall be the same as was that of the owner of the property” (section 4(a)(2), PDF p.3)
  • “sell or otherwise transfer the right of ownership thereof” (section 19(a)(1), the act the Custodian shall not do for vested immovable property, PDF p.9)
  • “it shall be lawful for the Custodian to sell the property to that Development Authority” (section 19(a)(1) proviso, PDF p.9)
  • “shall be conclusive evidence of its contents” (section 30(c), of a Minister of Defence certificate, PDF p.16)
  • “shall not be heard” (section 30(i), of the plea of no control over the causes of leaving, PDF p.17)

Evidence the work relies on

A statute, not an evidentiary work. Its internal authorities are the instruments it defines itself by, replaces, preserves or incorporates: the Law and Administration Ordinance, 5708-1948 (footnote 1, I.R. No. 2 of 21st May 1948, Suppl. I, p. 1; LSI vol. 1, p. 7, and footnote 2, p. 6, for the 19 May 1948 emergency declaration), the Palestinian Citizenship Orders, 1925-1941, Consolidated (footnote 3, P.G. No. 1351 of 10th October, 1944, Suppl. II, p. 755), the Civil Procedure Ordinance, 1938 (footnote 4), the Partnership Ordinance (footnotes 5 and 17, Laws of Palestine vol. II, cap. 103, p. 1041 and p. 1037), the Companies Ordinance (footnote 6, vol. I, cap. 22, p. 161), the Cooperative Societies Ordinance (footnote 7, vol. I, cap. 24, p. 360), the Town Planning Ordinance, 1936 (footnote 8), the Rent Restrictions (Dwelling-Houses) Ordinance, 1940 (footnote 9) and Rent Restrictions (Business Premises) Ordinance, 1941 (footnote 10), the Cultivators (Protection) Ordinance (footnote 11, vol. 1, cap. 40, p. 506), the Land Transfer Ordinance and the Law Concerning the Partition of Immovable Property (footnote 12), the Urban Property Tax Ordinance, 1940 (footnote 13) and Rural Property Tax Ordinance, 1942 (footnote 14), the Emergency Regulations (Cultivation of Waste Lands) 5708-1948 (footnote 15, I.R. No. 41 of 7th January, 1949, Suppl. I, p. 94), the Civil Procedure Rules, 1938 (footnote 16), and the Emergency Regulations (Absentees’ Property), 5709-1948 (footnote 18, I.R. No. 37 of 12th December, 1948, Suppl. II, p. 59), which section 37 replaces from 31 March 1950. None of these texts is reproduced in the file.

Analysis

The Law works by definition, vesting and evidentiary presumption, all in the text itself. First, the section 1 period runs from 29 November 1947 to an end-date the Law itself leaves open — the future publication of a declaration that the 19 May 1948 state of emergency has ceased — so absentee status can attach for acts at any time in a period whose closing date this file does not give. Second, vesting under section 4 is automatic and complete: no case-by-case order is provided for, the Custodian takes the owner’s own status, and unknown identity is no bar under section 5. Third, the exits are narrow and gated in the text: section 27(a) confirmation is mandatory only for the two stated section 1(b)(1)(iii) cases, section 27(b) confirmation and section 28 release are in the Custodian’s sole discretion and both require a special committee’s recommendation under section 29, and section 32(e) lets the Custodian withhold either until his 4 per cent remuneration and expenses are discharged. Fourth, disposition is asymmetric: the Custodian may sell or lease a business and liquidate or wind it up under section 8, but for immovable property section 19 bars any sale or ownership transfer except to a Development Authority, if established, at not less than official value, and caps other leases at six years. Fifth, sections 30 and 22-23 place the practical burden on the other side: the Custodian’s certificates are presumptive, a Defence Minister’s certificate on who held a place is conclusive, the no-control plea is not heard, and the onus of proving consent, timing or full consideration rests on the person contending it. The file contains no preamble, debate or stated purpose, and none of the six amendment texts listed on PDF p.20; what the Law was for, and how it was applied, are recorded from other sources on Absentee Property Law.

People, organizations, places and events

Absentee Property Law, Custodian of Absentees’ Property, Development Authority, David Ben-Gurion, Chaim Weizmann, Knesset, Israel

Concepts

Present Absentees, Right of Return

How it relates to other sources

This is the primary text of the Law, not previously held as a source in the wiki. It anchors the accounts already recorded on Absentee Property Law: the 1978 United Nations study quotes the section 1 definition, notes no exemption for a person who left and returned except by the Custodian’s discretion, and records vesting with power to sell and the section 30 evidence rules — this file confirms the definition and evidence rules as quoted, and qualifies the sale point, since section 19 bars sale of vested immovable property except to a Development Authority at not less than official value, while section 8 gives a general power to sell or lease a business (The Right of Return of the Palestinian People, PDF p.28-29). Palestinian Right of Return: Sacred, Legal, and Possible dates the Law to March 1950 and gives its effect as transferring the owner’s right to a Custodian liable for the value but not the return of the property — the passage date, 14 March 1950, is confirmed here (PDF p.20); sections 27-28 and 32 in this file supply the return and payment machinery that account presupposes. Stateless Citizenship (2013) presents the Law as defining those who left between 1948 and 1952 as absentees — the primary text’s period is different in form: it opens 29 November 1947 and closes only on a declaration that the state of emergency has ceased, a date this file does not give, and the conflict is held on Absentee Property Law under Where sources disagree. Makdisi’s account of a December 1948 law declaring people absentees corresponds in this file to the Emergency Regulations (Absentees’ Property), 5709-1948, which section 37 says this Law replaces from 31 March 1950 while being read as one with them (Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, PDF p.319-320). Read beside Law of Return 5710-1950, passed on 5 July 1950, 113 days later (computed from 14 March 1950 to 5 July 1950), the two 1950 statutes state opposite movements in their own texts: the Law of Return gives every Jew the right to come to the country as an oleh, while this Law vests the property of the persons it defines as absentees in the Custodian, with confirmation or release as the only stated routes back.

Open questions

  • The section 1 period’s closing date — publication of a declaration that the 19 May 1948 state of emergency has ceased — is not given in the file, so when, if ever within this file, the period closes is outside this source. Molavi’s 1948-1952 period, recorded on Absentee Property Law, is not the period this text states.
  • Section 30 as printed passes from subsection (f) to subsection (h) with no subsection (g), in both the text copy and the original; whether a subsection was omitted in the authorised translation or in the Law as passed is outside this file.
  • Section 39 is headed “Interpretation” as printed, although its body charges the Minister of Finance with implementation and section 1 is already headed Interpretation; the heading is recorded as printed, not corrected.
  • Section 8(a)(2) as printed reads “a partnership all the partners of which are shareholders of which are absentees”, conflating the partnership and company clauses; the missing company wording is not supplied in this file.
  • Printed slips recorded as printed, not corrected: “immovable arid movable property” for “and” (section 1(a), PDF p.1), “SaudiArabia” (section 1(b)(1)(i), PDF p.1), the absence of “declared” in the section 1(e) period wording (PDF p.2), “within operations the time prescribed” (section 11(a)(1), PDF p.5), “agrived” (section 11(d)(1), PDF p.5), the Rent Restrictions heading’s “19’1” for 1941 (section 12, PDF p.6), “an ainount” (section 19(d)(2)(i), PDF p.10), “autborised” (section 24(e), PDF p.14), “Sefer Ho-Chukkim” (PDF p.20), and footnote slips “4),” , “English Ediition” and an unclosed parenthesis in footnote 14 (PDF p.20).
  • The six amendments listed on PDF p.20 by date only — (6.3.51)(14.2.56)(3.19.58)(2.2.65)(8.7.67)(8.8.67) — are not reproduced, so the Law as amended after 1950 is outside this file.
  • Section 19(a)(1) permits sale only to a Development Authority “if a Development Authority is established under a Law of the Knesset”; whether and when such an Authority was established is outside this file — Sitta’s account of a Development Authority (Transfer of Property) Law of July 1950 is recorded on Absentee Property Law.

Coverage

PDF p.1-20 of 20, read in full.

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