An Ottoman law dating from 1858 allows uncultivated land to be declared by the Israeli government as state land. Israeli Supreme Court rulings in 1961 (Badaran) and 1984 (Al-Hawashli) defined "uncultivated land" so narrowly that areas not within 1.5 miles of an inhabited settlement that existed before 1858 can be declared by the Israeli government as state land.
These rulings, together with other discriminatory laws passed by the Knesset, enabled the Israeli government to render all Negev Bedouin villages "illegal" and turned the Bedouin into "trespassers on state land," subject to forcible expulsion and their homes and villages to demolition.
The rulings have also enabled the Israeli government to "legally" confiscate land from Palestinian villages in the West Bank, making it available for "lawful" development (under Israeli law) for Jewish settlements - despite the fact that such settlements are universally regarded as violating international law.
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