Israeli citizens are buying from Arabs, who fled before the War of Independence, land declared absentee property, with the aim of receiving compensation from the state for nationalizing the land. The transactions under which the purchase is conducted are false ones. Israelis receive a forged sales contract, indicating that the deal was done prior to December 1947, in return for the payment to sellers who fled Israel.
The General Custodian has warned of the phenomenon. This is the first time this has been reported.
More than 2 million dunam (1/4 million acres) of land out of the total land in Israel (22 million dunam) are plots which belonged to Arabs or unknown owners, and were nationalized by the State (absentee properties).
The Israeli authorities exposed the land transactions, following the application by a resident of an Arab state to an Israeli State representative in Amman. The resident introduced himself as Naji Sakhnini, and said he owned land in Tiberias, declared absentee property in Israel.
He asked the Israeli representative to help him locate an Israeli citizen who would be willing to buy land, in return for a false sales contract. Sakhnini also said that he heard that residents of Arab states of his status (owners of land which has been nationalized in Israel) found buyers for their land, in exchange for forged sales contracts. Following Sakhnini’s application, the General Custodian warned against phenomena of this kind. Among others, the General Custodian has approached the State Attorney. A similar warning was given to the Israel Lands Administration.
From the ‘50s until the end of 1997, the State compensated many citizens who claimed their lands had been unjustifiably nationalized by the State. During these years, more than 15,000 claims on the absentee properties issue were received. The claims referred to 205,000 dunams of land. As compensation, the state handed over 55,000 dunams of land.
Published by Israel's Business Arena September 3, 1998