Description

Since a 1979 High Court ruling that prohibited the requisition of private Palestinian land to build civilian settlements, the settlement enterprise has been based on the use of state land. Following the court’s ruling in the Elon Moreh case, and in line with policies of building settlements throughout the West Bank, the State of Israel declared more than 900,000 dunams as state land. This B’Tselem (See News Source Link) report finds that Israel’s application of its declarations policy was unlawful, since it classified some land as government property even though, under local law, it was private Palestinian property.