The head of the council of Palestinian village of Jalud and human rights group Yesh Din filed a petition the High Court of Justice, demanding the court instruct proceedings for the demarcation of settlement jurisdictions be made public and transparent and include a public consultation process prior to jurisdiction declarations. The petition also seeks to revoke the jurisdiction allocated for the new settlement of Amichai. Petitioners submitted to Court two archived documents uncovered by Akevot.
Re: Inclusion of state land, Jewish-owned land and acquired land in the jurisdiction of regional councils
The document reveals that as soon as 1981, a decision was made to designate all public land in the West Bank for Israeli local and regional councils. The document, written in February 1981 and entitled, “Inclusion of state land, Jewish-owned land and acquired land in the jurisdiction of regional councils”, says the jurisdictions of Israeli councils will include all such lands in the area of the councils, as well as land in the possession of the supervisor of abandoned and governmental property, including absentee property.
Jordanian law on acquisition of lands for public needs
The petitioners: “In 1980 the then-Attorney General, Prof. Yizhak Zamir already opined regarding the option of using private lands expropriated “for Israeli settlement”. In his opinion, referring to the possibility of expropriating private Palestinian land for creating settlements in the area, he determined, inter alia, that the law in force is international law; that expropriations must be done in accordance with the local Jordanian law; that is it difficult to consider the Israeli population there as a local population, for the needs of such expropriation; and that any such expropriation would cause far-reaching diplomatic and legal hardships.”
(paragraph 59, HCJ Petition 5037/17)