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(Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, 1992) was enacted to establish several values and principles in Israeli society as part of forming a constitution for a state defined as Jewish and democratic, with all the balances and contradictions that this entails.
Section (3) of the law addresses the right to property and the prohibition of infringing upon a person's property. The question is: how can the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992) coexist with another existing law from the 1950s: (The Absentees’ Property Law, 1950), when "absentees," as defined by the law, live only hundreds of meters away from their property or that of their parents, in the same town or a neighboring village?
The Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty did not provide protection to every citizen of the state, nor did it safeguard the dignity, liberty, or property of all individuals as human beings.
Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of citizens in the state have been stripped of their rights to lands that belong to them or their families under the Absentees’ Property Law. These so-called "absentees" are, in reality, present. The Development Authority (Israel Land Authority), a governmental agency, confiscated lands that are private property belonging to residents and citizens for the benefit of the state. Legally, these individuals were classified as "absentees" simply because they moved from one village to another within the state and did not cross into another country during the war in 1948.
Laws can be changed, and justice can be achieved if there is a will. These "absentees" are present, the properties exist, and so do their rightful owners.
Justice, logic, and fairness demand an amendment to the Absentees’ Property Law to allow for a fair distribution of state resources for the benefit of the Arab community, both generally and specifically. Expanding the jurisdiction of Arab towns and villages and developing them economically is the rightful path toward achieving this historical rectification.
For decades, no new Arab residential community has been established, and the expansion of jurisdiction areas for Arab villages and towns has been minimal, achieved only through the selective allocation of plots for construction. This approach fails to keep pace with the development needs of these villages, which have grown into cities.
Amending the law and returning property to its rightful owners or their heirs, or implementing a new and just resource distribution, can ensure justice and human dignity for tens of thousands of individuals in the state. It would also illuminate the principle of equality in a progressive democratic system in a state for all its citizens.
From the perspective of a significant portion of Israeli society, the proposal or demand to amend the law and allocate new and just resources is seen as a threat and a danger. However, in reality, changing the attitude and perception of Israeli society toward the Arab community, especially from a historical perspective, requires a different outlook and new thinking. Arab citizens are part of the state, live within it, and are not enemies. Human dignity is meant to be—and must be—a right for all citizens.
"One must act according to the ways of justice and law." Justice, justice we shall pursue, for a secure future for all of us and a dignified life as human beings in a democratic state for all its citizens.
Mohammad Ghaleb Yahya, Attorney
Member of the "All Its Citizens" Party
22/12/2024
0524496604