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After statehood
After Israel's establishment in 1948, there was a debate concerning the future
of the JNF. Initially the government wanted to dismantle it, but after the
United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 194 calling for Arab refugees
to be allowed back into their homes, the JNF was seen as mechanism by which land
which was previously owned by Arab refugees could be placed further out of their
reach. Accordingly, the government began to sell land to the JNF that had been
seized from Arab refugees. On January 27, 1949, 1,000 kmē of this land (from a
total of about 3,500 kmē) was sold to the JNF for the low price of 11 million
pounds. Another 1,000 kmē of seized land was sold to the JNF in October, 1950.
Questions about the legitimacy of these transactions were counteracted by
Israeli legislation.
In 1953, the JNF was dissolved and re-organized as an Israeli company without
much essential change. A far greater change occurred in 1960, when
administration of the land held by the JNF, apart from forested areas, was
transferred to a newly formed government agency, the Israel Land Administration,
the government agency responsible for managing 93% of the land of Israel . JNF
received the right to nominate ten of the 22 directors of the ILA.
JNF funds pay for the planting of trees in Israel.The charter specifies that the
purpose of the JNF is to purchase land for the settlement of Jews. In the past,
this was interpreted to mean that JNF should not lease land to non-Jews, but the
restriction was frequently circumvented in practice, for example, by granting
one-year lease to Bedouins for pastures. In January 2005, Israel's Attorney
General Menachem Mazuz ruled in response to a Supreme Court petition that lease
restrictions violated Israeli anti-discrimination laws.
In June 2005, an agreement was made by which the JNF would transfer a portion of
its urban holdings to the state and the state would transfer rural land in the
Negev of equal value to the JNF.
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