Law to Amend the Cooperative Societies Ordinance (No. 8), 5771-2011

Summary

Israel’s Law to Amend the Cooperative Societies Ordinance (No. 8), 5771-2011, enacted by the Knesset on 22 March 2011, the Admissions Committees Law: it defines a “community town” as a community in the Galilee or the Negev incorporated as a cooperative society and classified as a rural community town, or the expansion of a kibbutz, cooperative moshav, workers’ moshav or cooperative village so classified, where the households in the community, or in the original community and expansion together, do not exceed 400 and the maximum was limited by a national or district master plan, and it provides that allocation of land to acquire a right to land in such a town where an admissions committee operates, and any later transfer of such a right (inheritance excepted), require the admissions committee’s approval; the five-member committee — two community representatives, a movement representative (or a third community representative), a representative of the Jewish Agency for Israel or the World Zionist Organization, and the regional-council head or his delegate as chairman — must give a reasoned refusal, may refuse only on the six considerations in section 6C, including unsuitability for the community’s social life on a professional opinion and lack of compatibility with its social-cultural fabric where there is reason to assume harm to that fabric, and may not refuse for reasons of race, religion, gender, nationality, disability, personal status, age, parenthood, sexual orientation, country of origin, political-party opinion or affiliation, with a reservation to a five-member reservations committee appointed by the Minister of Construction and Housing, which may cancel, approve, remit or substitute its own decision (Law to Amend the Cooperative Societies Ordinance (No. 8), 5771-2011, PDF p.1-4).

What the file is

The English text of the Law in one 4-page file, 1,484 words in the text copy, headed “Unofficial translation by Adalah”: section 1 on PDF p.1-2, the new sections 6B-6D on PDF p.2-4, sections 3-5, the signatories and footnote 7 on PDF p.4, and footnotes 1-6 at the feet of PDF p.1-2. The enactment footnote on PDF p.1 gives enactment by the Knesset on 16 Adar Bet 5771 (22 March 2011) and the proposal’s publication in Knesset Bills – 341, on 1 Av 5770 (12 July 2010), p. 222. The text copy was checked against the original at PDF p.1 and p.4; the original reads the same, including the spelling “leasee” recorded below. No Hebrew text, table or figure appears in the file.

Section by section

• Section 1, Amendment of Section 2 (PDF p.1-2). In Section 2 of the Cooperative Societies Ordinance (footnote 1: Laws of the Land of Israel, Volume A, p. 336, 360 (a), with a parenthesised quotation mark before 336; Book of Laws 5765, p. 101): (1) after “central society” come “The Galilee”, as defined in the Galilee Development Authority Law, 5753-1993, and “The Negev”, as defined in the Negev Development Authority Law, 5752-1991. (2) After “committee” come “Reservations committee” and “Admissions committee”, each as denoted in Section 6B, and “Right to land” — a right to lease Israel lands or a right to lease Israel lands for generations as denoted in the Basic Law: Israel Lands, including a right to register as a leasee or a leasee for generations, a right of a party to a development contract in a community town to register as a leasee or as a leasee for generations after fulfilling the contract terms, and renting for periods totalling more than five years; “lease” and “lease for generations” as denoted in the Lands Law, 5729-1969 — “leasee” as printed throughout. (3) After “member” comes “Community town” — a community in the Galilee or Negev incorporated as a cooperative society classified by the Registrar as a rural community town or as a cooperative society for community town, or the expansion of a kibbutz, of a cooperative moshav, of a workers’ moshav or of a cooperative village so incorporated and classified, that fulfills both: (1) the number of households in the community, or in the original community and the expansion together, does not exceed 400; (2) the maximum number of households was limited in accordance with the directives of a national master plan or a district master plan, as denoted in the Planning and Building Law, 5725-1965.
• Section 2, new section 6B(A), Allocating land and transferring a right to land in a community town (PDF p.2). (1) Allocation of land to a person to acquire the right to land in a community town in which an admissions committee operates will be executed after receiving the admissions committee’s approval. (2) Transfer of a right to land that was allocated or legally transferred in such a town will be executed after the transferor receives the admissions committee’s approval with regard to the transferee; this also applies, with the requisite changes, to a transferee interested in transferring his right to another person. (3) Transfer of a right to land in inheritance, whether in accordance with law or in accordance with a will, does not require approval; paragraph (2) applies to an heir interested in transferring his right to another person.
• Section 2, new section 6B(B), Composition (PDF p.2). An admissions committee is composed of five members: two representatives of the community town; a representative of the movement with which the community town is affiliated or in which it is a member, and if it is not so affiliated or a member, or if the movement waives representation, an additional representative of the community town; a representative of the Jewish Agency for Israel or the World Zionist Organization; and a representative of the regional council under whose jurisdiction the community town is located. The regional-council representative will be the head of the regional council or his deputy, or an employee of the council appointed by the head, provided they are not residents of the community town, and he will be the chairman.
• Section 2, new section 6B(C)-(G), Refusal and reservations (PDF p.3). (C) A refusing admissions committee will provide the candidate with a reasoned decision. (D) The candidate and the community town are entitled to submit a reservation about the decision to the reservations committee. (E) The reservations committee is composed of five members appointed by the Minister of Construction and Housing: a public figure with educational background in law, social work or behavioral sciences, on the recommendation of the Minister of Justice, as chairman; the Registrar of Cooperative Societies or his deputy; an employee of the Israel Land Administration; an employee of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services on its Minister’s recommendation; and an employee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on its Minister’s recommendation. (F) The reservations committee may cancel a decision of the admissions committee, approve it, refer the matter back for reconsideration, or make another decision in its place. (G) The reservations committee will define its work procedures and publish them on the Internet sites of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and the Ministry of Justice.
• Section 2, new section 6C, Considerations of the admissions committee (PDF p.3-4). (A) An admissions committee is entitled to refuse a candidate based on one or more of these considerations only: (1) the candidate is a minor; (2) the candidate lacks the economic ability to establish a home in the community town within the period stipulated in the land allocation agreement; (3) the candidate has no intention of establishing the center of his life in the community town; (4) the candidate is not suitable for the social life in the community, a refusal on this consideration to be based on a professional opinion by someone expert in identifying such suitability; (5) the candidate’s lack of compatibility with the social-cultural fabric of the community town, when there is reason to assume that this would harm this fabric; (6) unique characteristics of the community town or acceptance criteria defined in the society’s regulations, if there are such, provided they received the Registrar’s approval. (B) In weighing those considerations, the committee will take into account the future of the community town, how long it has existed, its strength and the nature of its population. (C) The admissions committee will not refuse to accept a candidate for reasons of race, religion, gender, nationality, disability, personal status, age, parenthood, sexual orientation, country of origin, political-party opinion or affiliation.
• Section 2, new section 6D, Preservation of authority (PDF p.4). Sections 6B and 6C do not oblige the allocation of land to a person whose candidacy the admissions committee has approved.
• Section 3, Amendment of the Courts for Administrative Affairs Law – No. 55 (PDF p.4). In the Courts for Administrative Affairs Law, 5760-2000, in the first addition, at the end will come: “39. Cooperative societies – a decision by a reservations committee under Section 6B of the Cooperative Societies Ordinance.”
• Section 4, Inception (PDF p.4). This law will enter effect 30 days from its publication.
• Section 5, Application (PDF p.4). This law will apply to the proceedings of the admissions committees in community towns that will begin from the day of inception and thereafter; “admissions committee” and “community town” as defined in Section 2 of the Ordinance as formulated in Section 1 of this law.
• Signatories (PDF p.4). Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister; Shalom Simhon, Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor; Shimon Peres, President of Israel; Reuven Rivlin, Speaker of the Knesset.

Key passages

• “does not exceed 400” (section 1, on the households in a community town, PDF p.2)
• “will be executed after receiving the approval of the admissions committee” (new section 6B(A)(1), PDF p.2)
• “The candidate is not suitable for the social life in the community” (new section 6C(A)(4), PDF p.3)
• “lack of compatibility with the social-cultural fabric of the community town, when there is reason to assume that this would harm this fabric” (new section 6C(A)(5), on the candidate, PDF p.3)
• “will not refuse to accept a candidate for reasons of race, religion, gender, nationality, disability, personal status, age, parenthood, sexual orientation, country of origin, political-party opinion or affiliation” (new section 6C(C), PDF p.4)

Evidence the work relies on

A statute, not an evidentiary work. Its internal authorities, each with a Book of Laws reference in footnotes 1-7, are the Cooperative Societies Ordinance itself, the Galilee Development Authority Law, 5753-1993, the Negev Development Authority Law, 5752-1991, the Basic Law: Israel Lands, the Lands Law, 5729-1969, the Planning and Building Law, 5725-1965, and the Courts for Administrative Affairs Law, 5760-2000. None of those provisions’ texts is reproduced in the file beyond the definitions and amendments given.

Analysis

Read on its own terms, this Law is a gatekeeping mechanism for land in a defined class of small communities, not a general admissions law for all towns: its scope is fixed by the “community town” definition — Galilee or Negev only, cooperative-society incorporation and Registrar classification, a 400-household ceiling and a master-plan household limit — and by the trigger, allocation or transfer of a right to lease Israel lands. Within that scope the approval requirement is comprehensive, reaching the first allocation and every later transfer, inheritance alone excepted, and approval does not itself oblige allocation under section 6D. The text holds two sides together: the refusal grounds are closed (“one or more of these considerations only”), a reasoned decision and a reservations appeal are required, and section 6C(C) expressly bars refusal for reasons including race, religion and nationality; at the same time, grounds (4) and (5) — social-life suitability on a professional opinion, and incompatibility with the social-cultural fabric where harm to that fabric is assumed — and ground (6), a community’s own Registrar-approved criteria, are the operative discretionary grounds, and the committee judging them includes a representative of the Jewish Agency for Israel or the World Zionist Organization by statute. The file states no purpose beyond its mechanism, gives no figures for towns or refusals, and does not name any population group.

People, organizations, places and events

Acceptance to Communities Law, Knesset, Jewish Agency, World Zionist Organization, Israel Land Administration, Galilee, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, Kibbutz, Moshav

Concepts

Cooperative societies, Basic Law: Israel Lands

How it relates to other sources

This is the primary text of the law already in the wiki as Acceptance to Communities Law. Rethinking Statehood in Palestine presents the Acceptance to Communities bill of 2011 as formalizing admission committees for small communities in the Naqab and Galilee, its central intention being to prevent Palestinians from settling in Jewish communities, for communities of up to four hundred family units (PDF p.307); this file confirms the 400-household ceiling and the Galilee/Negev scope, gives the committees’ statutory composition and grounds, and states no such intention. Stateless Citizenship (2013) calls it the Admissions Committees Law, passed March 24, 2011, providing for committees in almost 700 agricultural and community townships, with full discretion to approve or deny applicants, a Jewish Agency or World Zionist Organization representative, and refusal for unsuitability to the social life or the social and cultural fabric (PDF p.73); this file gives enactment on 22 March 2011 in its footnote, limits refusal to the six considerations in section 6C, bars the grounds listed in section 6C(C), and provides the reservations appeal — and the two accounts, with their different dates and different scope figures, are held side by side on Acceptance to Communities Law, not reconciled. The “right to land” it defines rests on the Basic Law: Israel Lands, ingested in its primary text in an earlier batch.

Open questions

• The enactment date in this file’s footnote is 22 March 2011 (PDF p.1); Molavi gives the Admissions Committees Law as passed March 24, 2011 (PDF p.73). Both dates are recorded, not reconciled.
• The file spells the lessee a “leasee” throughout section 1, as printed in the original; whether the spelling stands in the official text is outside this file.
• Footnote 1 prints the Ordinance’s Laws of the Land of Israel reference with a parenthesised quotation mark before the page number 336, as in the text copy; the intended reference is outside this file.
• The file gives no count of community towns or admissions committees; Molavi’s figures of almost 700 townships, 68.5 percent of all towns and around 85 percent of villages on state land in the Naqab and Galilee (PDF p.73) are outside this file, and its definition covers only towns meeting both household conditions in the Galilee or Negev.
• What counts as the “social-cultural fabric” of a community town, and what professional opinion ground (4) requires in practice, are not defined further in the file.

Coverage

PDF p.1-4 of 4, read in full.