Summary
Israel’s Basic Law: Israel Lands, passed by the Knesset on 19 July 1960, in three sections: section 1 provides that the ownership of Israel lands, being the lands in Israel of the State, the Development Authority or the Keren Kayemet Le-Israel, shall not be transferred either by sale or in any other manner; section 2 excepts classes of lands and classes of transactions determined for that purpose by Law; and section 3 defines “lands” as land, houses, buildings and anything permanently fixed to land (Basic Law: Israel Lands (1960), PDF p.1).
What the file is
The English text of the Basic Law in one 1-page file, about 161 words in the text copy: the three sections, the signatories and the passage footnote, followed by closing matter from the Knesset’s own site — a 2003 State of Israel copyright line with a feedback address and the Knesset URL — and no Laws of the State of Israel volume identification, unlike the other files in this batch. The text copy was checked against the original on the whole page and reads the same. No Hebrew text, table or figure appears in the file. The companion laws of the same 1960 package, the Israel Lands Law, 5720-1960 and the Israel Lands Administration Law, 5720-1960, are not reproduced in this file; the second is ingested separately in this batch.
Section by section
- Section 1, Prohibition of transfer of ownership (PDF p.1). “The ownership of Israel lands, being the lands in Israel of the State, the Development Authority or the Keren Kayemet Le-Israel, shall not be transferred either by sale or in any other manner.”
- Section 2, Permission by Law (PDF p.1). Section 1 shall not apply to classes of lands and classes of transactions determined for that purpose by Law.
- Section 3, Definition (PDF p.1). In this Law, “lands” means land, houses, buildings and anything permanently fixed to land.
- Signatories and passage footnote (PDF p.1). Signed by David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister, and Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, President of the State. Passed by the Knesset on 24th Tammuz, 5720 (19th July, 1960) and published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 312 of 5th Av, 5720 (29th July, 1960), p. 56; the Bill and an Explanatory Note were published in Hatza’ot Chok No. 413 of 5720, p. 34 — the same Hatza’ot Chok number, at p. 36, as the Bill of the Israel Lands Administration Law passed six days later.
Key passages
- “The ownership of Israel lands, being the lands in Israel of the State, the Development Authority or the Keren Kayemet Le-Israel, shall not be transferred either by sale or in any other manner” (section 1, PDF p.1)
- “Section 1 shall not apply to classes of lands and classes of transactions determined for that purpose by Law” (section 2, PDF p.1)
Evidence the work relies on
A Basic Law, not an evidentiary work. It cites no other enactment in its sections; its passage footnote cites only its own Bill and Explanatory Note in Hatza’ot Chok No. 413 of 5720, which is not reproduced in the file. The three holders it names — the State, the Development Authority and the Keren Kayemet Le-Israel — are defined nowhere in this file; the Development Authority and the Keren Kayemet Le-Israel are the subjects of other enactments in the wiki.
Analysis
The Law is a single rule with a single exception mechanism. As a Basic Law it states the inalienability rule at constitutional level, but section 2 leaves the rule’s scope to ordinary legislation: any class of lands or transactions a later Law excepts is outside section 1, and the file states no entrenchment, no special majority and no limit on that exception power. The rule attaches to ownership only: nothing in the three sections addresses leasing, letting or use, which are the transactions the companion Administration Law regulates through the Israel Lands Council’s approval for non-urban land over 100 dunams. The definition in section 1 is by holder, not by origin or acquisition: land is “Israel lands” because the State, the Development Authority or the Keren Kayemet Le-Israel holds it in Israel, and the file gives no area, proportion or acquisition history for any of the three holdings.
People, organizations, places and events
Basic Law: Israel Lands, Basic Laws, Jewish National Fund, Development Authority, Knesset, Israel, David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
Concepts
none
How it relates to other sources
This is the primary text of the 1960 Basic Law in Dowty’s table of the Basic Laws, where it appears as “Israel Lands 1960”, the second of the eleven listed (The Jewish State: A Century Later, lines 2617-2799; see Basic Laws). Palestinian Right of Return: Sacred, Legal, and Possible gives this Law, with the Israel Lands Law and the Israel Lands Administration Law of 25 July 1960, as the settlement that created the Israel Land Administration after the JNF-government dispute over whether seized land should be held for the Jewish people or the state (lines 1270-1305); this file supplies the first of the three texts, and its section 1 is the inalienability rule that settlement enacted across all three holders, the State included. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine attributes the bar on selling, leasing and sub-letting JNF land to non-Jews to the laws of 1960 and the Law of Agricultural Settlement of 1967 (PDF p.257-258); this Basic Law bars transfer of ownership only and names no permitted or barred lessee, so the lease and lessee elements of that account rest on texts not in this file, a difference held on Basic Law: Israel Lands.
Open questions
- The Israel Lands Law, 5720-1960, the second law of the 1960 package, is cited by the Administration Law in this batch but is not in either file, so the package’s substantive land rules beyond inalienability and administration cannot be stated from this batch.
- Section 2’s exception classes, as enacted by any later Law, are not in the file, so the rule’s actual scope after 1960 is outside this source.
- The file gives no figures for the area held by the State, the Development Authority or the Keren Kayemet Le-Israel, and no statement of how any of the three acquired its lands.
Coverage
PDF p.1 of 1, read in full.