The Israel Land Authority recently published a tender (No. 367/2024) for the establishment of a new settlement within the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem. The tender calls for developers to submit proposals for purchasing rights to approximately 11 dunams of land in Beit Safafa, south of the Talpiot industrial area, in order to plan and build a neighborhood with around 200 housing units. It is possible that the plan the developers ultimately prepare will include a higher number of units than 200.
According to the wording of the publication, the tender is for the purchase of rights to the “relative portion of the state / Development Authority” in plot 181 of block 30285. This means that there may be private owners, in addition to the state, for that plot.
The tender designates the Development Authority as the owner of the land or part of it. The Development Authority is an entity established under the Absentees’ Property Law, which transfers all absentees’ properties to the Authority, which then sells the properties to potential buyers. The Absentees’ Property Law was enacted in 1950 in Israel under the special circumstances that arose at that time, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to leave their homes and properties in Israel, becoming refugees, and the Israeli government prevented them from returning. The law defined them as “absentees” and allowed the Israeli government to take properties that belonged to Palestinians before 1948 and use them for the development of the country.
In 1967, when the Israeli government annexed East Jerusalem and applied Israeli law to it, the Absentees’ Property Law was also applied to the Jerusalem area, despite there being no connection between the circumstances of 1948 and the situation in Jerusalem after 1967. Thus, if the owner of a plot of land in Beit Safafa, for example, resides in Jordan, the Custodian of Absentee Property declares them an absentee and transfers the plot to the Development Authority.
For further details on the Absentees’ Property Law and its application in East Jerusalem – see here.
It should be noted that there is a possibility that the apartments that will be built as a result of this tender in Beit Safafa will be purchased by Palestinians from East Jerusalem.
However, experience shows that the vast majority of government-initiated construction ultimately ends up being acquired by Jews, either due to price or due to planning or marketing bias.