Give it Back

Interesting story that. Most certainly it is. That large sections of West Bank settlements are legally owned by private owners. Palestinians who have never been compensated for their ancestral properties - if, indeed, they even would be willing to part with the land. Data compiled for the government of Israel itself indicates that fully forty percent of the land currently used by Israel is privately owned. This data comes from a 2004 study of the Civil Administration controlling Israel's presence in the West Bank.

The Israeli group Peace Now, advocating on behalf of Palestinian self-determination in the West Bank and Gaza strip plans to make the data public, and advanced a copy of the data to The New York Times. The data, including maps indicating the government's registry was surreptitiously obtained by Peace Now by means of an official within the Civil Administration. The situation represents violations of private Palestinian property rights by the Israeli government and by settlers.

Officials advise that a committee struck to solve the problem has been investigating the outstanding issues for several years, but the problem is under ongoing investigation. They state also that some Palestinians hesitate to sell their land to Israelis fearing retribution as collaborators, and that most certainly is a legitimate fear, given the propensity of Palestinian "activists" to seal their disapproval with murder.

Some of the lands in dispute, about 54%, is considered to represent "state land", or land that has no specific designation, which may represent agricultural land that had been expropriated by the state. Whatever the situation with investigation into legal ownership of the lands in question, the fact remains that there is a great deal of land in the West Bank that the State of Israel intends to maintain.

There should be a high priority placed on bringing this overdue matter to a close.