The Israeli Government Declared 10 Dunams as State Land to Legalize the Yizhar Cemetery

On November 17, 2024, the Custodian of Government and Abandoned Property signed a declaration declared approximately 10.37 dunams (2.6 acres) of the Burin village land, south of Nablus, as “state land.” Landowners have been given 45 days to appeal the declaration and attempt to prove before the Appeals Committee that the land belongs to them. The declaration aims to legalize the illegal cemetery Yizhar, which was established unlawfully in late 1990’s.

This declaration is one of seven state land declarations made since the beginning of the year, encompassing a total of 24,203 dunams (5,991 acres). The year 2024 marks a record in declarations; in fact, in 2024 alone, approximately half of all the land declared since the Oslo Accords in 1993 has been declared as state land.

The declaration process is essentially a legal maneuver developed by Israel to circumvent the prohibition in international law against expropriating private property of the occupied population for the benefit of the occupying power. To “convert” private land into public land (termed “state land”) without expropriating it, Israel claims that it is not changing the land’s status but merely “declaring” it officially.

According to Israel’s interpretation of Ottoman land law, which is the basis of the land laws in the occupied territories, if a landowner does not cultivate their land for several years, the land is no longer theirs and becomes public property. To this end, the mapping personnel of the Civil Administration, now operating under the Settlements Administration with legal counsel under Minister Smotrich, examine aerial photographs to identify uncultivated lands and mark them as “state land.”

For more on Israel’s stringent interpretation, see B’Tselem’s report “By Hook and By Crook: Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank.“

For more information on the mapping personnel’s maneuvers to set declaration boundaries – see Kerem Navot’s report “Blue and White Make Black.“

It should be noted that in 1998 an illegal outpost called Lahavet Yitzhar was established near the cemetery, which developed into a neighborhood with dozens of families, also established on private land that was not declared state land. The current declaration does not deal with the entire area of ​​the outpost, but only with the area of ​​the cemetery and its immediate surroundings. The reasons for this may be that the legalization of the cemetery is higher on the priorities of the settlement administration’s work than the legalization of the outpost, and that no work is currently being done on a declaration in the area. However it is also possible that work is currently being done on another larger declaration to legalize the outpost, but due to its scope, the work on it takes longer.