“The ILA is obligated to market JNF land to Arabs, too,” Attorney General Menachem (Meni) Mazuz said yesterday. Mazuz spoke in a discussion of the state’s answer to a High Court of Justice petition. The Arab Center for Alternative Planning, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and Adalah The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel petitioned the court against the Israel Land Administration (ILA) decision not to market land to Arabs in tender in Givat Makush in Carmiel.
Mazuz’s announcement restores to situation to what it was five months ago, before the Givat Makush tender. Up until that time, the state compensated the Jewish National Fund (JNF) with other land whenever the ILA marketed JNF land to Arabs.
This arrangement was first changed in the Givat Makush tender, following a dispute between the ILA and JNF over the question of compensation. The ILA announced that it was halting its arrangement with the JNF, and announced that Arabs were ineligible for the tender. The High Court of Justice petition was filed in response.
In the discussion, Mazuz said it was unacceptable for an organ of the state to discriminate against non-Jewish citizens. He said that in order to preserve the arrangement between the ILA and the JNF, the ILA could continue marketing JNF land, while compensating the JNF with other land, as in the past.
Mazuz added that if a Jew wanted to sell land registered in the ILA’s name to an Arab, the ILA would also have to compensate the JNF by registering other land in its name.
The JNF said it was satisfied with Mazuz’s decision, since it supported the compensation arrangement, and did not permit the ILA to disavow it.
Arab Center for Alternative Planning general director Dr. Hanna Swaid said that Mazuz’s response would not cause the withdrawal of the High Court of Justice petition. He commented that the response had settled the accounting dispute between the state and the JNF, but did not solve the problem of substance continued discrimination against Israeli Arabs in the marketing of land.
Swaid noted that Mazuz’s answer approved the JNF’s demand for compensation for land leased to Arabs. He pointed out that the JNF was a semi-official body, not a private one, and was therefore obligated to obey the law of the land.
The JNF claims that its land, which makes up 15% of the total land in Israel, was purchased by Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora for the purpose of redeeming the state’s land, and that the state was therefore not entitled to market it to non-Jews.
The ILA said in response that it would be glad to reach a comprehensive agreement with the JNF, and planned to assemble a team to inquire how the total area of land owned by the JNF could be preserved, while land is marketed to all Israeli citizens.
The ILA believes that one solution could be the creation of a land reserve, composed of un-marketed land under ILA management. Some of this land could be given to the JNF.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on January 27, 2005