Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, members of the Palestinian Arab community owned and/or cultivated some 93-94% of the land in geographical Palestine. Today, 93% of the territory of the State of Israel is under direct control of the State and administered under a land tenure system aiming to limit leasehold and cultivation to Jews only. The philosophy of Zionism, which remains the driving force behind the policies and practices of the Israeli State, calls for the "Judaization" of the land through the continued settlement of Jews throughout the country in Jewish-only enclaves. This ideology has resulted in the dispossession of the Palestinian people through a complex combination of legal and administrative methods.

Land Alienation Laws and Practices

There exists in Israel a multi-faceted framework of laws and military regulations which have granted the State the legal authority to confiscate Palestinian land and property.
First codified by the British Mandatory government, and later adopted by Israel, the Land Ordinance of 1943 sanctioned the confiscation of private lands for "public purposes," most often defined by Israel as serving the needs of the Jewish population. Israel also adopted the Emergency Regulations left behind by the British Mandate which allow military commanders to forcibly declare areas as "closed" and deny access to residents of the area. Many Palestinian citizens of Israel today find that they are still denied access to their homes because they sit on land in a "closed area." In 1950 the Government passed the Absentee Property Law, which defined all those who were expelled, fled, or left the country between 1948 and 1952 as "absentees" and their property as "absentee property." The lands and properties of the refugees and internally displaced persons were confiscated, transferred to an ad hoc custodian, and eventually used for the purposes of Jewish settlement. Those who remained inside Israel, even if they became citizens of the State, were classified as "present absentees," and prevented from re-claiming their land.

In addition to legal manipulation, the State uses a number of administrative practices to limit Palestinian use of the land, including discriminatory national planning and zoning regulations, as well as forced evictions and demolitions of unlicensed buildings and homes.

Keren Kayemeth Leisrael: the Jewish National Fund

The Jewish National Fund (JNF) was incorporated in England in 1907. Its goal, then and now, is to "purchase and develop land as a national resource of the Jewish people, by the Jewish people, and for the Jewish people." Today, the Fund claims title to 16% of the land within the State of Israel and has control over a much larger percentage through its influence over the administration of the Israel Land Authority (ILA). The JNF has long been the driving force behind State designs to expropriate Palestinian land and transfer it to Jewish ownership and use. With much of its support coming from the Jewish diaspora, the JNF touts itself as devoted to promoting the concept of the "People of Israel" as the worldwide community of Jews.
From the Memorandum of the Association, drafted in 1907:
"The objects for which the Association is established are: … to purchase, take on lease or in exchange, or otherwise acquire any lands, forests, rights of possession and other rights, easements and other immovable property in [the region of] Palestine, Syria, any other parts of Turkey in Asia and the Peninsula of Sinai ... for the purpose of settling Jews on such lands."