State Planning First Implementation of Legalization Law

Jerusalem, 14 February, 2017 (TPS) -- The State has informed the Supreme Court it is considering implementing the recently adopted Legalization Law. This will be the first time the law would be used to retroactively expropriate privately owned land.

In its request to the court, the State says the expropriation is necessary to prevent a situation where families would be evicted from their homes through no fault of their own.  The State claims it intends to retroactively legalize  six houses in Adei Ad, a small (23 families) settlement northeast of Jerusalem, by retroactively expropriating the land on which they were built, as the law mandates.

The houses were thought to have been built on state land, but it now transpires they were built on land not included in the state owned lands in the area. The area in question is a hodge-podge of intersecting state land and privately owned plots.

The State is required to get the Court’s approval, since suits against the law have already been filed with the Court.