Israel has used various laws and legal devices as a means to legitimize its sweeping confiscation Palestinian land. After the Nakba, the newly formed State of Israel passed laws and ordinances including the Absentees’ Property Law (1950)[1] and Land Acquisition Law (1953)[2] to bring the land of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced Palestinians under state control. Since the Naksa (1967 war), Israel has used an Ottoman-era law to legitimize its confiscation of Palestinian land throughout the West Bank, defining it as Israeli “state land”.[3] Today, the Israeli state directly controls around 93% of all land in Israel[4]—mostly the land of displaced Palestinians—and has declared roughly 23% (1,300 sq.km) of the West Bank as “state land”,[5] though these claims of ownership are not recognized under international law.
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