“Negotiation for Property Regimes in Palestine: A Historical Perspective” with Ahmad Amara

As part of its “Global Reflections” series, Institute Social hosted Dr. Adv. Ahmad Amara for an online talk titled “Negotiation for Property Regimes in Palestine: A Historical Perspective” on January 29, 2026. In his talk, Amara traced the historical continuity of property law encompassing Ottoman, British Mandate, and Israeli legislation. He demonstrated how Ottoman and British colonial legislation was integrated into the existing legal system, and how the transformations in the interpretation of this legislation and the understanding of property and proprietary relations shifted across imperial, colonial, and postcolonial periods.

The talk highlighted two key legal measures. First, the 1943 Land (Acquisition for Public Purposes) Ordinance, enacted during the British Mandate, granted the state broad authority to expropriate land under the justification of “public interest.” This was followed by the 1950 Absentees’ Property Law, which established an extensive regime of confiscation targeting the property of displaced Palestinians. Amara underscored that the implementation of this law occurred in a context in which a significant portion of the Palestinian population had been forcibly displaced, making it a pivotal mechanism in restructuring land ownership.

Amara also discussed the institutional dynamics preceding 1948, including the relationship between Zionist institutions and the British Mandate authorities, as well as the legal and spatial implications of the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan. The land registration and settlement system established under British rule, he argued, provided the legal infrastructure that later enabled large-scale reconfiguration of property rights.

The situation of Bedouin communities formed another central focus of the talk. Amara explained that Bedouin populations were forcibly relocated into designated areas, while their historical land claims were systematically denied. Many Bedouin villages have been classified as “unrecognized” or “illegal,” resulting in deliberate exclusion from basic public services such as water, electricity, and infrastructure. According to Amara, this reflects not only a legal transformation but also a profound social and spatial restructuring.

Addressing land classification policies, Amara pointed to the designation of certain areas as mawat (dead land), under which vegetation was systematically destroyed and the agricultural character of the land effectively erased. He contrasted this with the Ottoman period, when regions such as Gaza and Beersheba held notable agricultural and economic significance. A substantial portion of the Bedouin population in these areas sustained livelihoods through farming and pastoral activities, underscoring the historical depth of land-based economic life in Palestine.

The talk concluded by emphasizing that the transformation of property regimes in Palestine must be understood as a multilayered process shaped by legal, demographic, economic, and geopolitical factors. The session ended with a Q&A segment, where participants further explored how historical legal mechanisms continue to shape contemporary negotiations and realities on the ground.