Land Law and Policy in Israel: A Prism of Identity

As one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world, the State of Israel faces serious land policy challenges and has a national identity laced with enormous internal contradictions. In Land Law and Policy in Israel, Haim Sandberg contends that if you really want to know the identity of a state, learn its land law and land policies.

Sandberg argues that Israel’s identity can best be understood by deciphering the code that lies in the Hebrew secret of Israeli dry land law. According to Sandberg, by examining the complex facets of property law and land policy, one finds a unique prism for comprehending Israel’s most pronounced identity problems.

Land Law and Policy in Israel explores how Israel’s modern land system tries to bridge the gaps between past heritage and present needs, nationalization and privatization, bureaucracy and innovation, Jewish majority and non-Jewish minority, legislative creativity and judicial activism. The regulation of property and the determination of land usage have been the consequences of explicit choices made in the context of competing and evolving concepts of national identity. Land Law and Policy in Israel will prove to be a must-read not only for anyone interested in Israel but also for anyone who wants to understand the importance of land law in a nation’s life.

Haim Sandberg teaches property law at the College of Management Academic Studies (COMAS), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Tel-Aviv University. He is a member of the Israeli Bar Association, and for three decades, he has advised governmental bodies, public institutions, and commercial firms in the fields of land law and land policy. Professor Sandberg was a member of the Israeli Council for Higher Education (CHE), and his name was officially published as a candidate for a judge in the Israeli Supreme Court.