When Did Israel Begin Taking Palestinian Land? 1950 and 1967
The earliest dated Israeli instruments are the Knesset’s 1950 statutes and Military Order 59 of 1967, with the Elon Moreh judgment of 1979.
1950 is the earliest year carried by an enacted Israeli statute on this question, the Knesset having passed the Absentee Property Law in March 1950 and the Development Authority (Transfer of Property) Law in July 1950. For the West Bank the earliest dated Israeli instrument is Military Order 59, Order Concerning Government Property, which the Commander of IDF Forces in the West Bank Area issued on 31 July 1967, in force from 7 July 1967. The categories the later instruments work in are older than either date: the Ottoman Land Code of 1858 states the five classes of land still named in the area.
| Figure | What it counts | Who published it | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Enactment year of the Absentee Property Law and the Development Authority (Transfer of Property) Law | Knesset | March 1950 and July 1950 |
| Some 1.2 million dunams | Land expropriated in the first year of operation of the Land Acquisition (Validation of Acts and Compensation) Law, 5713-1953, inside Israel | Forman and Kedar, peer-reviewed legal history from Israeli legislation and archives | First year of the 1953 law |
| 31 July 1967 | Date of signature of Military Order 59, Order Concerning Government Property | Commander of IDF Forces in the West Bank Area | Signed 31 July 1967, in force from 7 June 1967 as the determining date |
| 8 | Articles in the 1967 text of Military Order 59 as published | Commander of IDF Forces in the West Bank Area | 1967 text, before nine later amending orders |
| About 125 dunams | Petitioners’ registered plots covered by the requisition order annulled in Elon Moreh | Supreme Court sitting as High Court of Justice | Judgment of 22 October 1979 |
| 26 of 105 | Unauthorized outposts recorded as standing on State land | Prime Minister’s Office | March 2005 |
The record carries two dates, 1950 and 1967
The dated instruments do not begin in 1948. Forman and Kedar record that Israel’s borders in 1948 enclosed 20.6 million dunams, of which about 13.5%, or 2.8 million dunams, was under formal state or Jewish ownership, and that the statutory sequence runs from the two 1950 laws through the Land Acquisition Law of 1953 to the Israel Lands legislation of July 1960. What the 1950 and 1953 statutes provide is set out in a separate record. The West Bank instrument is a different kind of document: Military Order 59 is the military commander’s own enactment, published by the issuing authority in its Collection of Proclamations, Orders and Appointments, and it enacts a definition rather than reporting a count.
Order 59 fixes government property as at the date of the order
Military Order 59 states that government property is property which, on the determining date of 7 June 1967, belonged to an enemy state, defined in the order as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan or any other enemy state and its government, units, authorities and corporations. The order creates a Custodian appointed by the military commander and, at Article 2, provides that he may take possession of government property and take any step he considers necessary to that end. The eight articles are the military commander’s own text, issued by the party administering the area, and they define property by who owned it on a fixed date rather than by any survey.
| Article | What the 1967 text provides |
|---|---|
| 1 | Determining date of 7 June 1967; definition of an enemy state; creation of the Custodian |
| 2 | The Custodian may take possession of government property |
| 5 | A good faith transaction with the Custodian stands even if the property proves not to have been government property |
| 7 | Commencement from 7 July 1967 |
| 8 | Names the order for the West Bank Area |
Source: Commander of IDF Forces in the West Bank Area, Military Order 59, 1967 text, booklet 5 at page 162. The 1967 text carries no declaration procedure, no objection window and no appeals committee, and the issuing authority lists nine later amending orders.
The 1979 Elon Moreh judgment annulled a requisition of about 125 dunams
The Supreme Court, sitting as High Court of Justice in HCJ 390/79 Dweikat v. Government of Israel, ruled unanimously on 22 October 1979 that Order of Possession 16/79 was invalid as to the petitioners’ registered plots, and gave the respondents 30 days to comply. Deputy President Landau held that requisition of privately owned land for a civilian settlement is potentially justified under Article 52 of the Hague Regulations where military needs in practice brought about the decision, and that a permanent settlement cannot rest on a temporary requisition. The Court expressly declined to decide Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the full reasoning is set out separately.
- Order 16/79 covered about 700 dunams; the annulment ran to the petitioners’ registered plots, about 125 dunams.
- Order 17/79, over the access road, drew no order, none of the petitioners holding ownership rights there.
- The Prime Minister’s Office published, in its 2005 summary of the opinion on unauthorized outposts, the 1979 government resolution following that ruling that settlements be established only on State land. That summary is the Israeli government’s own review of its own ministries, prepared at the request of the Prime Minister’s bureau.
The categories used after 1967 date from the 1858 Ottoman code
The Ottoman Land Code of 7 Ramazan 1274 states, at Article 1, five classes of land: mulk held in fee simple, miri belonging to the state exchequer, mevkufe held in mortmain, metruke, and mevat. Article 6 defines mevat by distance from habitation, about a mile and a half or about half an hour. The three-year rule at Article 68 is set out in a separate record, together with what it does not say.
| Article | What the code provides | Text quoted |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Five classes of land | Ongley 1892, unofficial English translation |
| 6 | Mevat defined by distance from the nearest inhabited place | Ongley 1892 |
| 68 | Land left fallow three successive years becomes subject to the right of tapu, the former possessor recovering it on payment | Ongley 1892 |
| 78 | Ten years’ undisturbed possession of miri or mevkufe proves a prescriptive right | Ongley 1892 |
The code is evidence of what the law said and carries no acreage, no share of land registered and no count of holdings.
No Israeli body publishes a start date or a cumulative total
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics publishes population, immigration and holiday release series, and publishes no series counting land transferred from Arab to state ownership. The State Comptroller published a follow-up audit of the Samaria and Judea District of the Israel Police in May 2022, which counted 12,865 cases opened in the district in 2020 for disturbing public order, security violations and damage to property, and published no land total; that chapter was released with confidentiality imposed on sections of it, so its counts are floors. The Prime Minister’s Office counted 105 unauthorized outposts in March 2005, 26 on State land, 7 on survey lands, 15 on Palestinian private property and 39 on mixed lands, with a remainder whose status the author had not resolved; the count is the Israeli government’s own, drawn from Civil Administration data the author states was incomplete, and the summary writes that 105 “probably does not reflect the true number of outposts in the area.” The Levy commission report of 2012 states recommendations and publishes no cumulative area figure.
Which figures may not be added together?
The 1.2 million dunams expropriated in the first year of the 1953 Land Acquisition Law is a figure for land inside Israel and may not be added to any West Bank figure. Within that 1.2 million, the 311,000 dunams taken from private ownership and the 704,000 dunams taken from the Custodian are subsets, not additions. Forman and Kedar state that there is no one agreed figure for land that moved from Arab hands to the state after 1948, and they relay others’ estimates rather than adopting one. The 105 outposts and the 26 on State land are a March 2005 count, not a series, and the four land-status categories are not totalled in the source.
Questions readers ask
What is the earliest dated Israeli statute on this subject?
The Knesset’s Absentee Property Law of March 1950, followed by the Development Authority (Transfer of Property) Law of July 1950.
What date does Military Order 59 use?
Military Order 59 states a determining date of 7 June 1967, and defines government property by who owned it on that day.
Does Order 59 reach privately registered land?
The 1967 text of Military Order 59 speaks of property belonging to an enemy state, its government, units, authorities and corporations, not of privately registered land.
How many articles does Order 59 contain?
Military Order 59 as published in 1967 contains eight articles; the Military Advocate General’s index lists nine later amending orders, the last being Order 1508.
Is there an official English text of Order 59?
The Collection of Proclamations, Orders and Appointments prints the order in Hebrew and Arabic only. Every English wording in circulation is an unofficial rendering.
What did the Supreme Court decide in 1979?
The Supreme Court ruled on 22 October 1979 that the requisition order was invalid as to the petitioners’ registered plots, and gave 30 days to comply.
Did the Court rule on the Fourth Geneva Convention?
The Supreme Court expressly declined to decide Article 49(6), holding it treaty law not binding in an Israeli court, while holding the Hague Regulations binding as customary law.
How much land did the 1979 annulment cover?
About 125 dunams, being the petitioners’ registered plots within a requisition order covering about 700 dunams.
Who publishes a count of unauthorized outposts?
The Prime Minister’s Office published one in March 2005, at 105, and the summary states that figure probably does not reflect the true number. Later counts appear in the Levy commission report of 2012, which publishes no total of its own.
Where do the land classes used in the area come from?
The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 states them, in Article 1, in an unofficial English translation by Ongley, published in 1892.
Sources
- Commander of IDF Forces in the West Bank Area, 1967. Military Order 59, Order Concerning Government Property. Collection of Proclamations, Orders and Appointments, booklet 5, page 162. Official or primary record.
- Forman, G. and Kedar, A., 2004. From Arab Land to “Israel Lands”. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 22(6), pages 809 to 830. DOI 10.1068/d402. Peer-reviewed journal.
- Israeli Supreme Court, 1979. HCJ 390/79 Dweikat v. Government of Israel. Judgment of 22 October 1979. Official or primary record.
- Levy, E. E., Shapira, T. and Baker, A., 2012. Report on the Legal Status of Building in Judea and Samaria. Commission appointed by the Prime Minister. Official or primary record.
- Ottoman Empire, 1858. The Ottoman Land Code of 7 Ramazan 1274. English translation by F. Ongley, revised by H. E. Miller, London, 1892. Primary record, unofficial translation.
- Prime Minister’s Office of Israel, 2005. Summary of the Opinion Concerning Unauthorized Outposts. Published 10 March 2005. Official record.
- State Comptroller of Israel, 2022. Samaria and Judea District of the Israel Police, Follow-up Audit. State Comptroller Report, May 2022, Chapter Four, page 321. Official record.
