Jewish National Fund Secretly Registered More than 100 Palestinian Homes as Its Own

UPDATE: On June 11, 2025, the Israel Land Authority, the governmental body managing land owned by the state and the Jewish National Fund (JNF), delivered expulsion notices to 18 homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Umm Tuba, on the grounds the land is owned by the JNF. The ILA is demanding the approximately 140 residents leave their decades-long homes in 30 days.1

In January 2024, a resident of the Palestinian neighborhood of Umm Tuba in East Jerusalem applied for a permit to build on his land. Five months later, the municipality informed him that he doesn’t own the land, and it has become the property of the Jewish National Fund (JNF).

With that moment, around 140 Umm Tuba residents discovered that the homes they have lived in for decades are now owned by the JNF, a quasi-governmental agency established in 1901 to purchase Palestinian land for Jewish settlement.2

According to Yusuf Abu Tayr, head of the Umm Tuba neighborhood committee, residents weren’t aware that their land was being registered in JNF’s name. Israel’s land registration process for Umm Tuba was finalized in May 2023. Residents say they were never contacted about it or asked for any documents.3

The JNF, however, disputes this claim and told Jerusalem Story, “The registration and land arrangement were completed in accordance with the law in Israel, with the registration process being conducted in full transparency for local residents.”4

In response to JNF’s registration, residents filed a petition to Israel’s Supreme Court in October 2024 demanding that authorities cancel the registration.5 At the time of writing, residents are waiting for the JNF to respond to the appeal so the judge can then schedule a hearing.

“Suddenly they found out that their land is not theirs, that their homes, which they legally built, are suddenly built on JNF land, which of course puts them at risk of eviction,” Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Ir Amim, an Israeli nonprofit monitoring Jerusalem policy, told Jerusalem Story.6

The JNF refused to provide information to Jerusalem Story on its plans for Umm Tuba, given the matter is before the Supreme Court, yet the neighborhood’s location may serve as a hint as to why it’s coveted by the organization.

Umm Tuba is located at the southern tip of Jerusalem, approximately four miles north of Bethlehem and adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Har Homa. The area is also surrounded by several Israeli settlement projects—Givat Hamatos, Lower Aqueduct, and Nofey Rachel—seeking to disconnect East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank.7

Plans exist to build 400 housing units for Jews in Umm Tuba, as well as a new neighborhood of as many as 1,500 homes between Umm Tuba and the Jewish settlement Gilo. If completed, the neighborhood will abut Givat Hamatos and sever Palestinian Bethlehem from Jerusalem and the northern West Bank.8

“This is a strategic area so [the JNF] wants to take over the neighborhood,” Abu Tayr said, pointing to Umm Tuba’s hillside villas overlooking the valleys of Jerusalem and Bethlehem.9 [They think] ‘Why should the Arab own it? We should own it.’”

Israel froze land registration when it occupied East Jerusalem following the 1967 War, also known as the Naksa.

“The situation of land in East Jerusalem since 1967 is that it’s not registered in the Israeli land register [Tabu],” Tatarsky said. “So, there is no formal proof recognized by Israeli authorities as to land ownership.”

This changed in 2018 when Israel’s government renewed the land registration process in East Jerusalem under Decision 3790, a state initiative claiming to improve socioeconomic development for Palestinians in East Jerusalem. However, the way the process was executed disadvantaged Palestinians as Israeli and settler groups began to register Palestinian property as their own.

In fact, Ir Amim has decried this land registration drive as a “grand land theft,” since it largely, if not exclusively, serves the objectives and interests of the government and the settler organizations whose primary aim is to seize Palestinian property and “redeem” it for exclusive Jewish ownership and use.“The Israeli authorities did land registration in a way that Palestinians actually risked losing their land,” Tatarsky said.

The majority of East Jerusalem hasn’t been approved for residential development because the land isn’t registered, meaning residents can’t obtain licenses to build. This isn’t the case, though, for Umm Tuba, where residents were granted building permits.

“Because there is no land registry in East Jerusalem, Palestinians cannot, when they ask for a permit, prove that they are the owners,” Tatarsky said. “So, because of that, they go through a different process, which is they need to prove that they have linkage to the land, which is something more vague and not as strong as ownership.”

This process, Tatarsky elaborated, is done through a community representative testifying that the land belongs to the resident seeking a building permit.

“Although it’s not formal recognition of ownership, it is for all practical matters, equal to ownership,” Tatarsky explained.

Abu Tayr told Jerusalem Story that his family has lived in Umm Tuba for generations and residents have deeds for the land from Jordanian authorities when the area was under the control of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from 1948 to 1967. The JNF, however, asserts they purchased the land as early as 1934 from a company that acquired the land from its original owners.10

“This is the highest level of fraud,” Abu Tayr said. “This land belongs to our ancestors.”

As the case heads to court, Palestinian rights activists and advocates appear wary over chances of success.

“The process was done without informing the residents and therefore, the residents didn't have the opportunity to present their proof of ownership and challenge the claims of JNF ownership,” Tatarsky said.

“Now, it’s already a done deal, and they are in a very weak position. The law makes it difficult to challenge the land registration.”