A land-reform bill that would lead to the transfer of nearly 200,000 acres of state land to private ownership is facing a new challenge. The Labor party's internal court is expected to rule on Sunday whether or not the party's charter mandates that Labor MKs oppose such land privatization initiatives.
The head of the Struggle Against the Land Reform Bill organization, Pesach Hausfetter, initiated an appeal with the Labor party's internal court system on Wednesday, requesting that the party's Knesset members be barred from voting in favor of the bill. According to Hausfetter, a member of the Labor party himself, the movement's foundational charter prohibits the transfer of state lands into private hands. Furthermore, the land privatization issue was never raised for debate and decision in any general Labor party forum.
The article in the charter referred to in Hausfetter's appeal is Article 6, subsection 7, titled "Settlement". The article states, in part: "The Israeli Labor party will work towards achieving the following goals.... implementing the principle of national ownership of state-owned land...." The anti-land reform activists further note the charter mandates that all party members are obligated to act in accordance with the party's principles, as expressed in the charter itself.
If the anti-land reform movement's arguments are accepted, the Labor party court will have the option of issuing an injunction preventing the party's 13 Knesset representatives, including government ministers, from voting in favor of the bill in its final readings on Monday. The Labor faction leaders have thus far supported the land reform bill, which is a key element in the privatization policies pushed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The loss of Labor party support for the bill may lead to a sharp political confrontation within the coalition, especially if Netanyahu is unable to get the necessary Knesset votes for the legislation on Monday.
Current Israeli law permits the conversion of a total of 200,000 dunams of state land (about 50,000 acres) to private ownership. The new legislation, if passed, would allow the privatization of 4 percent of state-owned land. Over 90 percent of all the land in Israel is defined as "state land", including properties currently managed by the Jewish National Fund.