Reservations Concerning Absent Persons' Property

- The reservations of the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB), in its annual report for 2021, regarding the State’s final account for 2018 and 2019 which was submitted by the Ministry of Finance and Planning accompanied by clarifications... What drew my attention in the Bureau’s reservation on Clarification No. (4) attached to the final account for 2018 and 2019, is that there are Absent Persons' Property, where the value of the deposits collected from these properties reached 103,000,000 shekels in 2018, and 89,000,000 shekels in 2019 respectively... I list below some of the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau’s reservations on the topic "Absent Persons' Property" :

- There is no complete and updated database for Absent Persons' Property, as the Absent Persons' Property data have not been linked to the computerized PTX program used by the General Directorate of Property Tax, nor has a separate computerized database been created for it....

- The collection of amounts due from tenants that must be remitted to the Treasury is incomplete, through granting clearances to some tenants of Absent Persons' Property, despite their failure to pay the amounts due to them!

- Weak procedures are followed in collecting and levying the amounts due from persons renting Absent Persons' Property, as some debts have accumulated for periods exceeding 20 years.....!

- We hope that the work of the Administration of Absent Persons' Property will be corrected in accordance with the Bureau’s observations..., documented, that a separate computerized database will be created for it, strengthened and safeguarded against any exploitation or infringement by the Israeli occupation authorities or by any opportunist..! In addition to completing and following up the collection of rent for these properties, noting that I do not know who ultimately receives the deposits collected as deposits for the rent of Absent Persons' Property, especially since they are collected as a trust deposit, and under the item deposits of owners of Absent Persons' Property........ Or whether they end up in the State Treasury... if none of the owners of these properties, or their heirs, or their agents, review the Ministry of Finance and Planning...

- I do not know exactly what the term "Absent Persons' Property" means.. and what is the definition of Absent Persons' Property for us in Palestine?... Especially since the Israeli occupation term "Absent Persons' Property" has a bad connotation, and is contained in the Absentees’ Property Law enacted by occupied Israel in 1950.. Also the term "Custodian of Absentees' Property".. is a colonial occupation term, and it came after Israel resorted to a passage from the Ottoman Land Law of 1858, which states that "lands that are not cultivated for a period of 3 years can be confiscated by the state, and declared state lands"..!! Thus.. occupied Israel was able to seize vast tracts of land in 1948... There is also the Absentees’ Property Law issued in 1950 by occupied Israel, as we mentioned above, which provided for the permissibility of confiscating the properties of Palestinian refugees who were displaced from historic Palestine following the Nakba in 1948, on the pretext of their being outside the borders of Israel, or in states hostile to it, and a Palestinian owner was considered absent even if he was inside the Green Line, if he left his village and moved to one of the neighboring towns and villages.. Israel deported the inhabitants of a number of villages, seized and demolished hundreds of villages and towns (about 500 villages and towns)... which became empty of inhabitants after their people were expelled in the year of the Nakba 1948... after Israel committed massacres to terrorize the villagers and townspeople, and to displace them..!

- The fear is that the scope of the definition of an absent person will widen, according to the occupation authorities’ definition, to include under their definition the application of the Absentees’ Property Law enacted by the Israeli Knesset, which may also apply to properties belonging to Palestinians from the inhabitants of the West Bank.. as is happening in occupied Jerusalem, and areas in the West Bank, in addition to Israel appropriating for itself the right to seize State properties (the West Bank and Jerusalem) that belonged before the 1967 occupation to Jordan..... which the West Bank and Jerusalem were subject to its rule, on the basis that they were part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, despite the fact that Israel confiscated and continues to confiscate lands in areas of the West Bank.. and East Jerusalem, which are located in areas classified as (C), and establishing settlements without restraint, not to mention Israel falsely telling the world that some of these lands... were sold by their Palestinian owners to Israeli investors..!

Date: 21-8-2022