Access Denied: Palestinian Land Rights in Israel

The struggle for land has been a key element of the conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine thoughout the past hundred years, and remains intense to this day. While international attention focuses on Israeli settlements that have encroached on to hitherto Arab land in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which lie legally outside Israel‘s boundaries, there is another dimension to the land question, as this book makes clear. Nearly one-fifth of Israel‘s population is Palestinian. This book examines the extent and means by which Israeli land policy today restricts access to land for these citizens within the 1948 boundaries of the State of Israel. Its authors - one a Palestinian lawyer and Israeli citizen practising in Israel, the other a British international human rights lawyer who worked in Israel for many years - examine the system of land ownership, the acquisition and administration of public land, and the control of land use through planning and housing regulations. What emerges is the extent to which the law is being used to restrict access to land by Israeli Palestinians and the discrimination that this entails for those citizens who are not of Jewish origin. The book argues that domestic and international law, which should operate to protect Palestinian land rights, have failed to do so, and that Israeli land policies breach international legal standards, including human rights norms.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 2. Palestinian Access to Land in Perspective 3. Dispossession by expropriation 4. Dispossession through denial of Palestinian Land rights, and forced eviction of Bedouin in the Naqab 5. The Concept of "Israel Lands" 6. Administration of 'Israel Lands': Policy towards the Palestinian Sector 7. Control of Land Use: Planning and Housing 8. The Phenomenon of the Palestinian "Unrecognized Villages" 9. Conclusion Bibliography Glossary of Terms Index

About the Author :
Hussein Abu Hussein is a Palestinian lawyer who practises in Um El Fahem, one of the largest Palestinian communities in Israel. He has been active in human rights and cultural organizations in the region for many years. He has handled many cases relating to land, discrimination, political prisoners and other issues affecting Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, including a number of test cases where he has invoked human rights arguments in the Israeli courts. Fiona McKay is a British solicitor and international human rights lawyer. She worked with Palestinian human rights organizations in Israel from 1988 to 1991, focussing on land rights, other aspects of discrimination and the rights of the Palestinian unrecognized villages and of the Bedouin in the Naqab. She then worked in Jerusalem as director of a legal service organization operating in the West Bank. Since 1995 she has worked on broader human rights and international justice issues. Hussein Abu Hussein is a Palestinian lawyer who practises in Um El Fahem, one of the largest Palestinian communities in Israel. He has been active in human rights and cultural organizations in the region for many years. He has handled many cases relating to land, discrimination, political prisoners and other issues affecting Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, including a number of test cases where he has invoked human rights arguments in the Israeli courts. Fiona McKay is a British solicitor and international human rights lawyer. She worked with Palestinian human rights organizations in Israel from 1988 to 1991, focussing on land rights, other aspects of discrimination and the rights of the Palestinian unrecognized villages and of the Bedouin in the Naqab. She then worked in Jerusalem as director of a legal service organization operating in the West Bank. Since 1995 she has worked on broader human rights and international justice issues.

Review :
In all settler colonies, control over land is in the heart of the conflict that will inevitably ensue between the natives and the settlers. Israel, being a settler colony is no exception to this rule. Its protracted conflict with the Palestinians, whether refugees outside their homeland or internal refugees, is focused on the control of land. This carefully researched book is the definitive work on the various modalities Israel has devised and utilized to systematically colonize Palestinian land, to secure control thereon, and to frustrate any attempt by the Palestinians to reclaim their properties. The Palestinian Question is essentially about competing claims to land, both within the occupied territories and Israel itself. This carefully written and thoroughly researched study shows how Israel has succeeded, by means contrary to international human rights standards, in reserving 94 per cent of the land of Israel for the exclusive use of its Jewish population. The dispossession of the land of the Palestinians within Israel by discriminatory laws and practices is examined in the context of Palestinian history, Israeli law and international standards. This excellent study serves as a timely reminder that the Palestine Question is not only about the occupied territories - it is also about the plight of Palestinians in Israel itself.