Access Denied

The struggle for land has been a key element of the conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine for the past hundred years. While international attention focuses on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, legally outside Israel’s boundaries, there is another dimension to the land question altogether. Nearly one fifth of Israel’s population is Palestinian. This work examines how Israeli land policy today inhibits access to land for its own Arab citizens even within the 1948 boundaries of the state of Israel. The authors – one a Palestinian lawyer and Israeli citizen, the other a British international human rights lawyer who worked in Israel for many years – examine the system of land ownership, the acquisition and administration of public land, and the control of land use through planning and housing regulations. The book shows how the law is used to discriminate against non-Jewish citizens and restrict Israeli Palestinians’ access to land. It demonstrates that Israeli land policies breach international human rights standards and that these standards could be used as a basis to challenge discriminatory policies.