Galilee land could be sold
Galilee land could be soldIsrael news photo: (file)

The land reform bill has passed a special Knesset subcommittee vote, and is to be voted on this coming Monday. Nearly 10,000 acres will be sold.

A special subcommittee was formed specifically for the purpose of passing the land reform package, under the auspices of the Economics Committee, and is chaired by freshman Likud MK Carmel Shama.

Marathon Subcommittee Sessions

The bill was separated from the Financial Arrangements Law, under which there would have been little or no debate before being summarily passed in the framework of this week’s Budget and Arrangements Laws votes. Opponents of the bill hoped that this would enable a thorough debate on the bill. In the end, however, Shama managed to conduct two long committee sessions, ending around midnight on Sunday, with the proposal passed and readied for its final readings in the Knesset next week.

MK Shelly Yechimovitch (Labor), a strong opponent of privatization in general and of this bill in particular, lamented that "such a fundamental matter was rammed through" with such a paucity of public debate.



Major Changes in the Proposed Bill

The reform underwent several major changes in the subcommittee debate, though it is still a major achievement for its main proponent, privatization supporter Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The most significant change is that land sales will be limited to 800,000 dunams (800 square kilometers), less than six percent of the original amount.

This area “includes all built-up areas,” Shama explained, “excluding shopping malls, large business centers, gas stations, and public buildings.  These are all the areas that the State wants to deal with individually.”

It is estimated that some 860,000 apartments are built on 400,000 dunams (400 square kilometers), and these will automatically pass to the ownership of those who are currently officially leasing them from the Israel Lands Authority. In addition, land sales will be permitted in parcels of up to 16 square kilometers each, up to a ceiling of another 400,000 dunams.

An aide to MK Shama explained that foreigners will not be permitted to buy. In any event, he said, responding to opponents, “the present situation, where land is leased and not sold, is no less attractive to foreign investors and real estate tycoons than when the land will be sold to them. Not once in history has it happened that a leaser of land was ever thrown off it, such that owning it will not make a difference.”

Automatic Acquisition

Those who live in private houses on land that was leased from the State for 99 years, as has been the custom in most of Israel, will acquire the land in exchange for a one-time payment of 31% of its value. Those who live in leased apartments will automatically acquire these homes at no extra charge.

According to another change made in the reform package, moshavim and kibbutzim residents will also become the owners of their plots automatically. Speaking with Arutz-7’s Hebrew newsmagazine, Shama took credit for this change, saying, “I promised that our brothers the farmers would not remain step-children of the State, but would rather be able to enjoy the benefits of the land which they earned with blood, sweat and tears.”

Green Involvement

Yet another change in the proposed law is that environmentalist groups will be involved in land sale decisions. The Ministry of the Environment will have a representative on the board of Lands Authority that will replace the existing Israel Lands Administration, and a representative of environmentalist groups will have a permanent observer. In addition, one percent of the Authority’s income or NIS 50 million, whichever is higher, will be invested each year in a “Green Fund” on behalf of environmentalist interests.

In addition, only land that is zoned or planned will be able to be sold. The purpose of this restriction is to try to ensure a “slow” rate of sale of lands.

Another change is that the entire program is subject to the negotiated consent of the 700 workers of the to-be-nullified Israel Lands Authority, many of whom fear that the new law will cost them their jobs.

Opposition is Still Strong

MKs such as Zevulun Orlev (Jewish Home), Shelly Yechimovitch (Labor) and others still object to the law, however. Orlev said the Land of Israel should not be sold, period. He is backed up by a Halakhic [Jewish legal] opinion issued this week by Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger stating that it is forbidden to enable the Land of Israel to be sold permanently to foreigners.

Uri Bank, of the National Union party, said that though public pressure led to the placing of a limit in the current bill, “this leaves a breach for enabling the sale of more and more land in the future. It could very well be that once these 800,000 dunams are sold, the Knesset will be asked to approve another 800,000.”

“In the past,” Bank said, “when the Jubilee was in force and land was never sold for more than 49 years at a time, privatization was not a bad idea. But now we have no Jubilee; why should the Land of Israel be divided into privately-owned pieces? Not to mention that Arab interests can easily form straw companies to buy up the Land of Israel.”