Abandoned Areas Ordinance
No. 12 of 5708—1948
Tel Aviv, 24 June 1948
THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE hereby enacts as follows :-
1. Interpretation
• (a) "Abandoned area" means any area or place conquered by or surrendered to armed forces or deserted by all or part of its inhabitants, and which has been declared by order to be an abandoned area.
• (b) "Property" means movable and immovable property, and includes animals, crops, fruits, vegetables and any other agricultural produce, factories, workshops, machinery, goods and commodities of all kinds, and also a right to movable or immovable property and any other right.
• (c) "Abandoned property" means any property abandoned by its owner in an abandoned area.
2. Powers of Government
• (a) The Government may, by order, declare any area or place conquered, surrendered or deserted as specified in section 1 (a) to be an abandoned area, and upon such declaration being made, such area shall be considered an abandoned area for the purposes of this Ordinance and any regulation made thereunder.
• (b). For the purposes of this Ordinance the Government may, by order, extend the whole or any part of the existing law to any abandoned area, subject to the safeguarding of the right of worship and the other religious rights of the inhabitants in so far as the safeguarding of such rights does not prejudice public security and order, and may also empower the Prime Minister or any other Minister to make such regulations as he may deem expedient as to matters relating to the defence of the State, public security, supply and essential services, schools, hospitals and clinics, health, labour, police or Arab Settlement Police, courts and the appointment of judges-whether with full or with limited jurisdiction--prisons, lock-ups and places of detention, and the expropriation and confiscation of movable and immovable property, within any abandoned area.
• (c) A Minister empowered to make regulations for the implementation of this Ordinance may, subject to the approval of the Prime Minister, make regulations, prescribe punishments therein and issue directions concerning any movable or immovable property within any abandoned area.
3. Implementation of Ordinance
The Minister of Finance is charged with the implementation of this Ordinance.
4. Commencement.
This Ordinance shall have effect retroactively as from the 7th Iyar, 5708 (16th May, 1948).
5. Title
This Ordinance may be cited as the Abandoned Areas Ordinance, 5708-1948.
17th Sivan, 5708 (24th June, 1948)
DAVID BEN-GURION, Prime Minister
FELIX ROSENBLUETH, Minister of Justice
ELIEZER KAPLAN, Minister of Finance
Source: Official Gazette, No.7 of the 23rd Sivan, 5708 (30th June, 1948).