Dual Track to Repealing Jordanian Law #40 is Sixty Years Late

Peloni

Judean hills. Photo by Inbal & Nir from Arad, Israel – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikipedia

In an important article written by Hezki Baruch on Arutz Sheva, it was revealed that during the meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Ministry of Defense announced it would be ending the restrictions on Jewish land purchases in Judea and Samaria, even before the legislation supporting this move is completed.  MK Boaz Bismuth, approved the bill’s first reading to abolish the 1953 “Jordanian Law #40” which had prohibited Jews from directly acquiring land rights in the area.

The proposed legislation would allow both Israeli citizens and Law of Return-eligible individuals to purchase land without the need for indirect mechanisms like establishing local companies, which had been a complex workaround previously required to circumvent the Jordanian law. The Land of Israel Lobby chairs correctly characterized this long overdue development as a significant step toward correcting a historical and racist injustice, emphasizing that restrictions based on Jewish identity are unacceptable in the Land of Israel. The dual approach which combines legislative action with a military order represents effort to accelerate the implementation of the change without delay.  The preservation of this grossly antisemitic barrier to land purchases has remained one of the most perverse elements in Israel’s attempt to appease foreign interests over its own citizens.  This remnant of the illegal Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria which took place in 1948 should have been struck down on the very hour of the IDF having emancipated these Jewish lands from Jordan back in 1967.

It should be recalled that in a case brought by Regavim against the Israeli govt, the Supreme Court demanded an explanation as to why Jews could not purchase land in the relevant areas in question.  Despite the ruling of the court, the Defense Minister at the time, Benny Gantz, refused to permit Jewish land purchases in the area to move forward.  Notably, that was just three years ago.

October 7 changed many things in Israel, and the repeal of this 60 year old illegitimate and racist decree which enshrined the discrimination against Jews in their own country, in their own homelands, is just one such example.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/418351

https://tinyurl.com/3pz74c64