Land: The Core of the Conflict
By Ziad Abu-Zayyad,
Palestine-Israel
Journal
(Ziad Abu-Zayyad is member of the
Palestinian Legislative Council and co-editor of the
Palestine-Israel Journal.)
Land was and still is the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict in Palestine. Even prior to
the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Zionist movement invested intensive
efforts to obtain land from its Arab owners. The Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth
le-Yisrael), for example, was established with the sole aim and role of buying land from
the Arabs. Yet, in spite of these efforts, only a small percentage of land passed into
Jewish hands, mostly by Arabs who at the time lived in neighboring Arab countries, such as
Lebanon and others.
When the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 181 of November 29, 1947, calling for
the partition of Palestine, only 7 percent of the land was in Jewish hands; Palestinians
owned the remaining 93 percent. In the wake of the Arab defeat in the 1948 war, the State
of Israel was established on 78 percent of the total area of the land of Palestine,
leaving the west bank of the River Jordan together with the Gaza Strip to Jordan and
Egypt, respectively.
Immediately after the end of the 1948 war, Israel's campaign for the acquisition of
Palestinian land took new shape. Instead of buying the land from its Palestinian owners,
the newly created Jewish state passed laws which would enable it to obtain land through
"legal" means. Accordingly, the 1948 Land Law was passed, which stipulated that
any land not in active cultivation for three years, was considered "neglected"
(matruk) and, upon the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture, its ownership was passed
on to another party. This procedure was made possible through a unique cooperation between
the Ministry of Agriculture and the Israeli Military Administration. The Palestinians who
had not fled or had not been expelled during the 1948 war, but remained on their land
within the Israeli state, were placed under administrative detention by the Israeli
Military Administration. They were denied freedom of movement and were thus kept from
cultivating their lands. These lands would later be declared "neglected" by the
Ministry of Agriculture and would pass into Jewish ownership.
When the UN General Assembly
passed Resolution 181 of November 29, 1947, calling
for the partition of Palestine, only seven percent of the land was in Jewish hands
In 1950, Israel passed the Law of Absentee Property, which enabled it to expropriate
millions of dunums (four dunums equal one acre) of Palestinian land and to pass them to
the control of the Minhal Mekarkaei Yisrael (The Israel Lands Authority). Part of these
lands belonged to Palestinians who had fled the country and had become refugees, but part
also belonged to those who had remained in what became the State of Israel, but were moved
by the Israeli authorities from their villages of origin and concentrated into other ones,
where they would be under the tight control of the Israeli Military Administration. This
earned them the status of "absentees"!
Subsequently, the Development Authority was founded in 1951. It had for role the
exploitation of the lands of absentees, and was given the authority to transfer these
lands to Keren Kayemeth or the State of Israel--- but never to non-Jews. Indeed, to this
day, Keren Kayemeth, the Israel Lands Authority, Amidar, and other bodies dealing with
land go by one rule: no land can be transferred to non-Jews.
Unequal Shares
Today, the total area of the State of Israel is approximately 20 million dunums. Of
this, 92 percent is totally closed to non-Jews. Furthermore, the Palestinian Arabs who
remained in what became the State of Israel constituted 18 percent of the population and
owned 25 percent of the land at the time of the establishment of the state. Today, they
still make up 18 percent of the population--- because the natural population growth among
them is balanced by Jewish immigration into the country--- but they hardly own 4 percent
of the land. Accordingly, the share of every Jewish citizen within the State of Israel is
4.2 dunums, while that of Palestinians is 0.7 percent of a dunum per person.
Following its occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, Israel used
similar methods and tactics to expropriate Palestinian land and to transfer it to Jewish
ownership. In the occupied territories, however, Israel does not enjoy the status of a
state. It is an occupying power and has no right to claim unto itself the ownership of
what is considered "state land." Legally, these lands belong either to Jordan,
which was the ruling state there prior to 1967, or to the Palestinian people and the
future State of Palestine.
This, however, has not ended the conflict over land and, clearly, has not stopped the
Israeli authorities from grabbing more and more of it. They are proceeding with the
expansion of existing Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, and with the extension of
their fences to include additional land. Bulldozers work day and night to change the
topography of the land and to create new facts on the ground. Zoning plans are drawn
periodically, and fraudulent deals are still carried out for the buying of Palestinian
property. All this raises a major question: What is the use of obtaining more and more
land here and there? How can this Israeli policy be viewed as compatible with all the
efforts that are being exerted for the achievement of peace between Israelis and
Palestinians? Where does the problem between the two peoples really reside? Is it in who
will have more land or who will feel more victimized? Or does it rather lie in how to
realize justice for both peoples and to convince them that there is yet a chance for them
to live in peace side by side?
One also questions the absence of equal justice for both peoples. What legal or moral
grounds, for example, give a Jew, any Jew from any part of the world, the right to settle
and live in occupied Palestinian land, while Palestinians are denied reciprocity,
including the right to live even in Arab East Jerusalem? In fact, Israel considers the
Palestinian population in East Jerusalem as foreigners who need residence permits to live
in their own hometown. These can be arbitrarily revoked, leading to the expulsion of their
holders from their city.
Burning Questions
These questions and many others are constantly raised and engender fear and bitterness
among the Palestinian population. It is becoming increasingly
obvious to them that they are being faced with a racist regime whose aim is to uproot
them from their land and to replace them with Jews. The experience of the Arab Bedouins,
who in 1950 were expelled from their own lands in the Negev and relocated to another spot
in the occupied territories, is a striking evidence of this policy.
Today, the total area of the State
of Israel is approximately 20
million dunums. Of this, 92 percent is totally closed to non-Jews
The Israeli people must come to terms with the fact that, on this land, another people
is entitled to the same rights. The expropriation of more Palestinian land and the
settling of Jews deep in the heart of the occupied territories will only complicate the
situation by making impossible any geographical separation between Israel as a Jewish
state (with a Jewish majority), and Palestine as a non-Jewish majority.
The current policy of the Israeli government will, in the long run, lead to a situation
whereby, in the occupied territories, a majority of Palestinians will be ruled by a
minority of Jews. This cannot be viable. It will be replaced by a binational state--- but
only after a protracted, painful and bloody struggle, causing great suffering on both
sides.
The time has come to pause and question: Why all this suffering? Should not human lives
be more valued than "one dunum here and one dunum there"? Unfortunately, this is
becoming increasingly difficult with the wave of right-wing Jewish fundamentalism
poisoning hearts and minds and undermining the forces of peace and moderation. Only a
shock can bring people to their senses. Or a firm international stand.
