If you were asked to name a country where there is still a law that prohibits Jews from buying property, you might be tempted to make an educated guess based on the dark history of Europe and the long tradition of expulsion and persecution that was facilitated by anti-Jewish legislation over centuries. Places like Germany, England and France might spring to mind; Spain and Portugal might be in the running as well.

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You probably wouldn't guess that in 2021, a law is enforced by the State of Israel that prohibits Jews from purchasing privately owned property – but that is the sad truth. "Law 40," enacted in 1953 by the Jordanians during their annexation of Judea and Samaria, prohibits the purchase of privately owned land by non-Arabs, as well as the sale of privately owned land to non-Arabs (in other words, Jews). Not only is Law 40 still "on the books," but it is actively enforced to this very day by Israel's legislative, judicial, and security branches.

In a very real and undeniable sense, this legislation is, quite simply, racist. It is blatantly anti-Semitic. It is regressive, and an affront to the concepts of personal liberty, equality, and property rights upon which democracy is based. Laws of this kind would not be allowed to stand anywhere in the civilized world, and it is nothing short of outrageous that the Jewish state has allowed this discriminatory and regressive legislation to remain in force in a judicial system that champions individual rights.

How, then, have Jews purchased property over the past 53 years? In 1971, the military commander for Judea and Samaria issued a directive effectively overriding it, by changing the Jordanian law that pertains to corporate ownership, while leaving Law 40 untouched. Thus, companies registered in Judea and Samaria – even if they are owned by Jews – are now permitted to purchase property in Judea and Samaria. Rather than strike down Law 40, the Israeli government has left it in place and designed a method of circumventing it.

But why should this be necessary? Simply put, Israel has spent decades avoiding any action that might be construed as an act of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. It has procrastinated to the point of absurdity, creating a vacuum of governance and a black hole of law and order that continues to turn normal life – for Jewish and Palestinian residents of Area C alike – into a tangled bureaucratic nightmare.

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The legal departments of both Israel's Defense Ministry of Civil Administration have recommended additional methods of circumventing or even amending Law 40. The Regavim Movement, on the other hand, has petitioned the High Court of Justice to expunge this anti-Semitic vestige from the Israeli legal code. Striking down Law 40 is a statement of Israel's commitment to equal and universal rights under the law – a statement that is long overdue.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Israeli nongovernmental organization Regavim petitioned the High Court of Justice on the eve of Jerusalem Day, renewing its earlier call to prevent the opening of the mosque. Regavim submitted an urgent request to the court for a temporary injunction that would close the structure, in an attempt to restore the status quo at the site. The petition, based on documentation of the waqf's recent activities at the site, proves beyond a doubt that the waqf has taken steps to permanently turn a historic structure at the Gate of Mercy into a mosque, carrying out construction work that has irreparably damaged the ancient building, in flagrant violation of Netanyahu's instructions to enforce the closure of the building.

Regavim's first petition was submitted in March, but Supreme Court Justice Menachem Mazuz allowed the government and the waqf 90 days to respond – all the time the waqf needed to transform the site into a Muslim-only compound.

The defense establishment identified radical Islamist activity at the site, orchestrated by Hamas operatives, and the government requested a court order to shut down the site, which was duly issued by the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court. The waqf ignored the court order and continued its construction project – in broad daylight and in flagrant disregard for the law.

In light of the ongoing construction work and the government's failure to enforce the closure order issued at its own request, Regavim petitioned the High Court of Justice to shorten the 90-day period granted to the state and the waqf to respond to the earlier petition. In its response to this petition, the government argued that the relevant authorities "are taking steps to regulate an overall approach for dealing with the Gate of Mercy compound; there is, therefore, no need for a temporary injunction to be issued at this stage."

Not surprisingly, Justice Mazuz rejected Regavim's request for a temporary closure order; even less surprisingly, despite the government's claim that it was tending to the matter, the waqf continued to carry out illegal construction work on the Mercy Gate structure, installing ceiling fans, lighting, furniture, and room dividers – permanent changes that have harmed the ancient structure, all without any oversight of the Israel Antiquities Authority as required by law.

The exclusive use by Muslim worshippers of this building turns it de facto into a mosque, which creates a security threat of the highest order – one that security experts warned against in no uncertain terms. This was precisely the scenario the government foresaw when it asked for (and received) the Magistrates' Court's closure order.

Netanyahu declared at the end of February that "Israel has not given its consent to opening the mosque on the Temple Mount." A statement released by the Prime Minister's Office at the time declared that Netanyahu had given instructions "to enforce the court order without compromise and to ensure that the site remains closed," but in practice, it appears that the work that is turning the site into a mosque has passed the point of no return.

"It is impossible to overstate the massive damage that has been done to the rule of law in this case: Lawbreakers do whatever they please at a holy site that is of indescribable religious and archaeological significance, in violation of a court order," said Yakhin Zik, director of operations at Regavim. "Without a temporary injunction, the illegal seizure of the compound and the illegal construction work will continue. The bottom line is that on Prime Minister Netanyahu's watch, Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem is being trampled."

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Yishai Hemo, Judea and Samaria field coordinator for NGO Regavim, describes the methodology: "Over the course of the past two years, activists from the Arab town of Al Khader, backed by P.A. and European Union funding, occupied the ruins of two ancient shomerot  (watchman's huts) – primitive stone structures used by passing shepherds or farmers as shelter from the elements – that dot the landscape in the Jerusalem and Sataf areas. They renovated these abandoned structures and turned them into homes – and from that point, in very short order, totally new structures have been added in the surrounding area."

The signs posted on the refurbished buildings, proudly bearing the European Union emblem, explain that the site is an ancient village – Shoshkhalah – despite the fact that aerial photos paint a completely different picture: In the past two years, more than 15 homes have been built in this "village," each connected to solar power infrastructure and water tanks paid for by the Europeans. Analysis of aerial photos from 1967, as well as historic maps dating back to 1880, prove that there was never any settlement of any kind at the site.

"This is another phase in the PA-European Union program to seize control over strategic  areas," says Hemo.

"We are all too familiar with the program – from illegal construction in the Adumim Region, from land grabs and highly developed construction projects on Israel Defense Forces training grounds in the Hebron Hills and Gush Etzion, and from the extensive agricultural work that the P.A. is carrying out as a means of securing ownership rights to tens of thousands of dunams that have been illegally seized for Roots Project activity.

"The 'ancient village' of Shoshkhalah is just one more example of the fact that there is no such thing as a vacuum. When the State of Israel fails to regulate and register land in Judea and Samaria, the PA takes advantage of the opportunity to seize this land and annex it, de facto, to its jurisdiction."

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The report and the virtually automatic reactions to its findings issued by leaders of the Arab sector repeat worn-out mantras that place the blame on Israel's government, the national planning authorities, and a host of "usual suspects" who are accused of dark political motives, racism and discrimination of all sorts. But do the facts bear these accepted pearls of wisdom?

Although the Israeli government is often accused of deliberately orchestrating the housing crisis in the Arab sector by creating a bottleneck of approved municipal master plans, the facts paint a different picture altogether.

Analysis of the data, which is readily available to the public on the government's website, indicates that in the overwhelming majority of non-Jewish communities in the Haifa-north region there is a complete, up-to-date inventory of approved statutory plans for the construction of thousands of housing units in each community – in full compliance with the law and with standard and accepted procedure.

Overcrowding in Israel's Arab sector is not the result of discriminatory land-allotment policy; it is the result of improper implementation of local development plans, failure to enforce the law against illegal construction which obstructs implementation of municipal plans, and the unwillingness of this sector to undergo a gradual process of urbanization.

Here's a fact: In the 2016-2020 period, more than 22,000 housing units are in advanced stages of approval and marketing – a number that outpaces the reported annual shortfall, with room to spare.

Why then, despite the State of Israel's concerted efforts and massive investment in planning, zoning and marketing state land in Arab communities, does the housing shortage in the Arab sector continue to deepen?

According to Regavim, a public nongovernmental organization that has been at the forefront of creating a coherent, comprehensive land-use policy for the State of Israel for more than a decade, "the real culprit is not some imaginary discriminatory land-allocation policy. The wrench in the works is illegal construction, which obstructs the implementation of the approved plans – and this rampant, disruptive construction is a direct result of the policy of non-enforcement that has characterized the State of Israel's relationship with the Arab sector for decades."

Another factor is the Arab sector's continued rejection of urban-style construction, with the oft-repeated claim that high-rise living is "not suitable for Arabs." The government has approved and marketed high-saturation housing units in the Arab sector with very limited success. Leaders of these communities often claim that such solutions are culturally inappropriate; nonetheless, 20- and 30-story buildings are not a rarity in the Arab cities of Ramallah, Nablus and Gaza.

The new city of Rawabi near Ramallah is a shining example of a modern urban center, built according to a development concept based on high-saturation housing that conserves valuable land resources.

The solution to the housing crisis in the Arab sector can be solved by the State of Israel with a few not-too-complex steps.

First, ramp up marketing of state-owned land in Arab settlements exclusively for urban, high-saturation construction projects.

The next step toward solving the crisis depends on the Arab sector's leaders and laypeople accepting the reality: The resolution of their perpetual housing crisis, and the way to improve planning, construction and infrastructure in Arab communities, is through uncompromising enforcement of construction and planning laws. If construction is allowed to continue willy-nilly – with no planning, infrastructure, oversight or accountability – there will be no way to build organized modern cities.

Law enforcement enables development to proceed; when coupled with high-saturation urban design, enforcement will allow already approved plans to be implemented and the housing crisis to be resolved.

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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On Tuesday, the Bedouin Authority unveiled an ambitious new plan for regulation of Bedouin settlements in the Negev. The plan, outlined in the Israeli economic newspaper Calcalist, purports to regulate 125,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel over the next decade. That includes nearly half of whom currently reside in illegal encampments adjacent to recognized Bedouin townships or in illegal structures within the municipal lines of those townships, and the other half of whom reside in outlying illegal encampments that the government has slated for relocation.

According to the plan, residential plots for the relocation of residents of illegal encampments will be prepared exclusively on state-owned land, which will enable the government to ignore the long-standing issue of "ownership claims" lodged by a small minority of Bedouin claimants involving hundreds of thousands of dunams of land in the Negev. Although these claims have never stood up in court, the government has sought to reach compromise solutions, offering extremely generous compensation packages to the claimants, in most cases to no avail.

According to the newly released plan, in the first stage, illegal structures within or in close proximity to the municipal boundaries of recognized townships will be legalized, and residents will receive compensation in the sum of 125,000 shekels ($34,800). This arrangement will redraw the municipal boundaries of the Bedouin townships, effective immediately, in order to "annex" the illegal compounds and include them in the recognized townships.

Some 65,000 residents of outlying illegal Bedouin encampments will be relocated in the future from their present locations to state land, where each household will receive, free of charge, a fully developed residential plot within a legal, permanent Bedouin settlement, complete with building permits for a free-standing home and 250,000 shekels ($70,000) as compensation for their existing (illegal) homes.

Under the new plan, the Bedouin Authority will approve building plans for some 150,000 residential units in total – some 40,000 of which will receive land allotments as early as 2021, when the current Five-Year Plan expires. Land allotments for the remaining 110,000 units will be approved in the next five-year cycle.

The budget for this new plan is currently 9 billion shekels ($2.5 billion), of which some 6 billion shekels ($1.7 billion) is earmarked for development, 1.5 billion shekels ($420 million) for infrastructure and an additional 1.5 billion shekels for compensation arrangements.

Regavim, a public non-governmental organization dedicated to preserving Israel's land resources, was instrumental in torpedoing the "Begin Law" that would have handed hundreds of thousands of dunams of land to Bedouin claimants as a means of achieving progress towards full regulation.

Regavim's "Negev Challenge" report, published in 2017, included a regulation scheme that was based on disconnecting the resolution of ownership claims from the process of regulation. Regavim's reaction to the Bedouin Authority's new plan was mixed: "On the one hand, after many long years in which the government's plans have been stuck in the quagmire of ownership claims, Minister [of Agriculture and Rural Development] Uri Ariel has decided to separate the two issues and to set the wheels of regulation in motion. This is the most significant step the government has taken in decades, and we applaud the initiative," says Amichai Yogev, Regavim's field coordinator in the Negev.

He explains that "the new plan will expand the existing townships by thousands of dunams in order to 'put a check' next to thousands of names – people who are living in illegal encampments that will be legalized without being relocated – while there are thousands of vacant lots within the existing borders of these townships that remain untouched. Instead of investing its energy in relocating people from the illegal encampments into the legal townships, the Bedouin Authority has chosen the quick and easy solution of legalizing these encampments so that it can claim success, even at the cost of ceding invaluable state land to municipalities that are half-empty. The existing Bedouin settlements should not be expanded until all their existing land reserves have been used to house relocated residents according to already existing resettlement plans."

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