Land Rights Settlement Ordinance [New Version], 5729-1969

Once a claims register has been displayed for real property in a given settlement or part thereof, no new entries shall be made in the existing registers in respect of that real property; however, the settlement officer may determine by notice under section 11 a date from which no new entries shall be made in the existing registers.

Upon the expiry of at least fifteen days from the date on which the claims register was displayed, the settlement officer shall commence the adjudication and settlement of claims.

Plaintiffs of a plot whose names appear in the claims register shall be invited by a notice posted in the settlement to appear at the time of the adjudication of claims.

Every claim included in the claims register shall be adjudicated by the settlement officer in public.

The settlement officer may refer to the court or to the competent religious court any question that has arisen in respect of –

The court or tribunal to which a question has been referred as aforesaid shall permit every interested party to appear before it, and it may summon any other party to the hearing and order the production of a document; and it may adjudicate the question, order the institution of proceedings, or give the settlement officer directions or guidance on the matter under consideration.

Jurisdiction to hear and adjudicate any dispute relating to real property in a settlement area shall vest in the court alone, and where there are conflicting claims between two or more plaintiffs, the settlement officer shall refer the dispute to the court.

In a dispute in which none of the parties has requested to be the plaintiff, the court may determine who is the plaintiff and who is the defendant and specify the persons each of them represents in the proceedings.

In every claim on a dispute, the court shall notify the parties of its judgment at the time of the hearing; where a plaintiff was not present or represented at the time of the hearing, the court shall send that plaintiff a notice.

Notwithstanding the provisions of section 43, if all the parties agree to submit the dispute to arbitration, the settlement officer shall refer it to arbitration; with such agreement, the court may also, at any stage of the hearing, refer to arbitration a dispute that has been referred to it by the settlement officer.

Where a dispute has been referred to arbitration, the court shall enforce the arbitration award within thirty days of the day on which it was given, subject to the powers set out in section 50; an award so enforced shall have the force of a judgment of the court, and for the purposes of stamp duty it shall be treated as an award of arbitrators appointed by the court.

Where the settlement officer is satisfied that a person is in possession of real property for a period and under conditions sufficient to bar any action for the recovery thereof, and the real property is registered in the name of another person, the settlement officer shall register the person in possession in the rights register as the owner of the real property in respect of the benefit that was vested in the person in whose name it is registered.

Where an objection or a competing claim has been lodged in respect of any of the matters referred to in sections 51 and 52, the settlement officer shall refer the matter to the court, and the court may order the registration of the person in possession as the owner of the real property if it finds that the conditions referred to for that purpose in those sections have been fulfilled.

Nothing in sections 51 to 53 shall affect the right of a person who has legal justification, under the Limitation Law, 5718-1958, to claim a right in real property registered in the name of another person by virtue of possession for a period prescribed by law.

After the adjudication of rights, the settlement officer shall divide the block into plots or registration units, in such manner that each category of land is indicated as a separate plot, and shall prepare a rights register in the form and with the particulars that have been prescribed.

Upon completion of the rights register for a block, the settlement officer shall read it, after having given notice thereof in the prescribed manner, before the settlement committee and before those claiming rights in the block; the absence of a member of the settlement committee or the absence of a claimant shall not delay the reading of the register.

The rights register shall be signed by the settlement officer and displayed for thirty days at his office or encampment and at the offices of the district administration in which the settlement is situated; notice of such display shall be published in Reshumot (Official Gazette).

After the display of the rights register, the settlement officer may correct clerical errors therein and introduce clerical amendments or clerical additions.

Within three months of the day on which the rights register was displayed, any person claiming a right in real property may apply to the court for an amendment, and the court may, after giving adequate notice to all persons affected by the application, vary the decision of the settlement officer.

Upon completion of the processing of the rights register in accordance with the provisions of the preceding sections, the settlement officer shall transmit to the Registrar a copy of the register together with the plan of the plots included therein, signed by the settlement officer.

A transfer of real property or a charge (security interest) effected in a plot after the settlement of rights therein and before the rights register has been displayed shall be registered in a separate register.

After all the rights registers in respect of a particular settlement have been recorded in the new register of that settlement, the rights registers shall be in the custody of the Administrator.

Once the rights register has been displayed, the transfer of a part of an undivided plot whose co-owners are accustomed to redistributing it among themselves shall not be registered, so long as it has not been divided in accordance with Chapter X.

A plot in a settlement area belonging to co-owners, as well as a village masha'a, shall not be divided except in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter.

A settlement officer shall not effect a division before the expiry of the period for lodging an appeal against his decision recorded in the rights register, and if an appeal has been lodged — before a final judgment has been given in the appeal; however, if the subject matter of the appeal does not affect the total of all shares of the co-ownership in the plot or in the village masha'a, the settlement officer may effect the division even if a final judgment has not yet been given in the matter.

Subject to the provisions of section 65, a settlement officer may, upon the application of the owners of not less than two-thirds of the shares in the village masha'a registered in the rights register, divide the masha'a among the owners of the shares so registered and record the plots in the division register; the division register shall be displayed for fifteen days, and thereafter the settlement officer shall transmit it to the Registrar for registration of the plots in the new register.

Notwithstanding any provision in the preceding sections, the Minister may at any time direct that a division of real property held in undivided ownership be effected if such division is for the public benefit.

A division shall be effected in accordance with an agreement between the owners of at least two-thirds of the shares included in the rights register and with the approval of the settlement officer.

The settlement officer shall prepare a division register in respect of all real property divided in accordance with the provisions of this Ordinance, and the register shall include the particulars that have been prescribed.

If at any time after the rights register or the division register has been displayed a person proves in legal proceedings his right to a share in a plot of undivided real property, the court may order that the new register be corrected or that the other co-owners pay compensation to that person, as the court shall direct; however, in the case of a village masha'a, where the right of a person so proved affects the total of all shares in that masha'a, the court shall not order the correction of the rights register or the division register or the new register, but shall order the payment of compensation.

The court may order that compensation be paid, as it sees fit, to a person who has proved his right to a share in a village masha'a at any of the following times:

Compensation under sections 73 and 74 shall constitute a charge (security interest) on the real property of the owners of the shares until it is paid in full.