As one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world, the State of Israel faces serious land policy challenges and has a national identity laced with enormous internal contradictions. In Land Law and Policy in Israel, Haim Sandberg contends that if you really want to know the identity of a state, learn its land law and land policies. Sandberg argues that Israel's identity can best be understood by deciphering the code that lies in the Hebrew secret of Israeli dry land law. According to Sandberg, by examining the complex facets of property law and land policy, one finds a unique prism for comprehending Israel's most pronounced identity problems. Land Law and Policy in Israel explores how Israel's modern land system tries to bridge the gaps between past heritage and present needs, nationalization and privatization, bureaucracy and innovation, Jewish majority and non-Jewish minority, legislative creativity and judicial activism. The regulation of property and the determination of land usage have been the consequences of explicit choices made in the context of competing and evolving concepts of national identity. Land Law and Policy in Israel will prove to be a must-read not only for anyone interested in Israel but also for anyone who wants to understand the importance of land law in a nation's life.

As one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world, the State of Israel faces serious land policy challenges and has a national identity laced with enormous internal contradictions. In Land Law and Policy in Israel,Haim Sandberg contends that if you really want to know the identity of a state, learn its land law and land policies. Sandberg argues that Israel's identity can best be understood by deciphering the code that lies in the Hebrew secret of Israeli dry land law. According to Sandberg, by examining the complex facets of property law and land policy, one finds a unique prism for comprehending Israel's most pronounced identity problems. Land Law and Policy in Israel explores how Israel's modern land system tries to bridge the gaps between past heritage and present needs, nationalization and privatization, bureaucracy and innovation, Jewish majority and non-Jewish minority, legislative creativity and judicial activism. The regulation of property and the determination of land usage have been the consequences of explicit choices made in the context of competing and evolving concepts of national identity. Land Law and Policy in Israel will prove to be a must-read not only for anyone interested in Israel but also for anyone who wants to understand the importance of land law in a nation's life.

Historically, Israel's Supreme Court has failed to limit the state's powers of expropriation and to protect private property. This book argues that the Court's land expropriation jurisprudence can only be understood against the political, cultural and institutional context in which it was shaped. Security and economic pressures, the precarious status of the Court in the early years, the pervading ethos of collectivism, the cultural symbolism of public land ownership and the perceived strategic and demographic risks posed by the Israeli Arab population - all contributed to the creation of a harsh and arguably undemocratic land expropriation legal philosophy. This philosophy, the book argues, was applied by the Supreme Court to Arabs and Jews alike from the creation of the state in 1948 and until the 1980s. The book concludes with an analysis of the constitutional change of 1992 and its impact on the legal treatment of property rights under Israeli law.

Emptied Lands investigates the protracted legal, planning, and territorial conflict between the settler Israeli state and indigenous Bedouin citizens over traditional lands in southern Israel/Palestine. The authors place this dispute in historical, legal, geographical, and international-comparative perspectives, providing the first legal geographic analysis of the "dead Negev doctrine" used by Israel to dispossess and forcefully displace Bedouin inhabitants in order to Judaize the region. The authors reveal that through manipulative use of Ottoman, British and Israeli laws, the state has constructed its own version ofterra nullius. Yet, the indigenous property and settlement system still functions, creating an ongoing resistance to the Jewish state.Emptied Lands critically examines several key land claims, court rulings, planning policies, and development strategies, offering alternative local, regional, and international routes for justice.

What does Israel's definition as a 'Jewish and democratic' state mean? How does it affect constitutional law? How does it play out in the daily life of the people living in Israel? This book provides a unique and detailed examination of the consequences of the 'Jewish and democratic' definition. It explores how the definition affects the internal ordering of the state, the operation of the law, and the ways it is used to justify, protect and regenerate certain features of Israeli constitutional law. It also considers the relationship between law and settler-colonialism, and how this relationship manifests itself in the constitutional order. The Dynamics of Exclusionary Constitutionalism offers a novel perspective on the Jewish and democratic definition rooted in constitutional theory and informed by a socio-legal approach. Relying on a wide range of court cases and statutes as well as secondary sources, the book shows how the definition is deeply embedded in the constitutional structure, and operates, as a matter of law, in a manner that concentrates political power in the hands of the Jewish citizens and excludes the Palestinian Arab citizens in Israel from the political process. Mazen Masri's study is a timely intervention in an increasingly important question, and is essential reading for those who want to understand Israel's character, its relationship with the constitutional order, and its impact on society.

“A brilliant and bracing analysis of the Palestine question and settler colonialism . . . a vital lens into movement lawyering on the international plane.” —Vasuki Nesiah, New York University, founding member of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) Justice in the Question of Palestine is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict’s most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel’s settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel’s military offensives in the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accord’s two-state solution is now dead letter. Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures—from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza—Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel’s interests than the Palestinians’. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable. Law is politics, and its meaning and application depend on the political intervention of states and people alike. Within the law, change is possible. International law can serve the cause of freedom when it is mobilized in support of a political movement. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the Question of Palestine. “Careful and captivating . . . This book asks that the Palestinian liberation struggle and Jewish-Israeli society each reckon with the impossibility of a two-state future, reimagining what their interests are—and what they could become.” —Amanda McCaffrey, Jewish Currents

Introducing the Negev–Bedouin land issue from the international indigenous land rights perspective, this comparative study suggests options for the recognition of their land. The book demonstrates that the Bedouin land dispossession, like many indigenous peoples’, progressed through several phases that included eviction and displacement, legislation, and judicial decisions that support acts of dispossession and deny the Bedouin’s traditional land rights. Examining the Mawat legal doctrine on which the State and the Court rely on to deny Bedouin land rights, this volume introduces the relevant international law protecting indigenous land rights and shows how the limitations of this law prevent any meaningful protection of Bedouin land rights. In the second part of the work, the Aborigines’ land in Australia is introduced as an example of indigenous peoples' successful struggle for their traditional land rights. The final chapter analyzes the basic elements of judicial recognition of the land and shows that the basic elements needed for Bedouin land recognition exist in the Israeli legal system. Proposing practical recommendations for the recognition of Bedouin land, this volume is a key resource to scholars and students interested in land rights, international law, comparative studies, and the Middle East.