Israeli Tenant Protection Law

A 1972 Israeli law establishing rights and responsibilities for landlords and protections for tenants, namely, that the landlord provides habitable conditions, including functional utilities, ventilation, and secure property features, and the tenants (citizens and permanent residents) are protected from rent increases and expulsion. The law was derived from a Colonial British Mandate-era law and first passed in Israel in 1954. The protection this legislation affords is inherited, meaning that the heirs of the tenants have the right to remain in the property for life, while paying the same rent. Many Palestinians in Jerusalem have protected tenancy status dating from before Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967. The 1972 law should, in theory, have continued to afford Palestinians these protections, including against forced expulsion. Many such properties exist in East Jerusalem, particularly in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan. Some were Jewish owned before 1948, placed under Jordanian custodianship after the Nakba, and then rented to Palestinians. After 1967, Israeli law restored ownership rights to the properties’ pre-1948 Jewish owners or their heirs, while this law—generally intended to protect Jewish tenants—prevents the owners from expelling the Palestinian tenants. In many cases, Jewish settler organizations have bought the ownership rights from the original owners or heirs and then used the courts to expel protected Palestinian tenants; for example, by using the subsequently enacted Third Generation Law. Today, given the many protections afforded by this older law, most Israeli leases specify that the Protected Tenant Law does not apply.