The Knesset voted 27:0 Wednesday in favor of a bill that would place restrictions on the sale of land to citizens and bodies from foreign countries.
The bill was brought before the Knesset in a preliminary reading and still requires three additional readings to become law. It stipulates that sale of land to foreigners will have to be approved by the Minister of Interior after consultation with the Minister of Defense and the Foreign Minister.
The restriction is meant to prevent a situation in which land in Israel falls into the hands of hostile elements.
The bill – an amendment to the Real Estate Law – was initiated by left-leaning Nachman Shai of the Kadima party, along with MKs Shelly Yechimovich (Labor), Uri Orbach (Jewish Home) and Yariv Levin (Likud).
MK Shai said the legislation is “a Zionist law that ascertains that there will not be hostile use of national lands that were given to us by previous generations and will be kept for future generations.”
The fact that a law of this nature is initiated and supported by left-leaning MKs like Shai and Yechimovich could come as a surprise to some observers, who would expect such legislation to come from the nationalist side of the spectrum. However, the bill can be seen against the background of criticism against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's policy of privatization, a policy which has recently been extended to land ownership. “They are against privatization in general, fearing that real estate sharks and foreign or local millionaires will buy up the land, thus hurting the little guy and forcing prices sky-high,” Jewish National Fund board member Uri Bank explained to Israel National News in December.
Netanyahu, who believes in opening up Israel's formerly socialistic and centralized economy, succeeded in bringing about the reforms despite a broad spectrum of critics from Left and Right.
Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi Yonah Metzger has also weighed in against the reform, as have religious politicians. Rabbi Metzger wrote that the reforms “violate the Torah’s commandments that ‘the Land must never be sold forever’ and ‘not to allow foreign elements to gain proprietorship over the Land.’”