The Jewish National Fund (JNF) board last week agreed to a one-time land swap with the state, under which it will cede land in urban areas in exchange for equal-sized land in the Negev and Galilee and compensation for the difference in value. The deal was one of the recommendations of the Gadish committee for restructuring the Israel Land Administration (ILA).
The purpose of the deal is enable the full capitalization of land to lessors, thereby streamlining work of the ILA, which administers the land for the JNF. A special coordinating committee will be set up, alongside the ILA Council, and will include representatives of the state and JNF. The committee chairman will be the minister responsible for the ILA Council, and the acting chairman will be the JNF chairman.
The parties agreed to continue negotiations on taxes, the legal handling of the land swap, payment of betterment fee, responsibility for past debts, and other outstanding issues. The JNF also agreed that the number of its representatives on the ILA Council would be adjusted to the amount of JNF land administered by the ILA. JNF representatives currently account for half of the ILA Council.
JNF world chairman Yehiel Leket said he hoped that outstanding issues, especially taxes and land that has not yet been parcelized, would be resolved in negotiations to the satisfaction of the parties. The parties agreed that the final agreement would brought before the JNF board for approval.
Ministry of Finance, JNF and ILA representatives have been meeting recently regarding the deal. There is opposition to the deal within the JNF by those who think only land with high-density housing should be transferred to the state, and not land with income-producing properties, because the latter generate regular revenue for the JNF, which can be used to pay pensions.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on April 16, 2006
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