The Israel Land Authority: relic or necessity?

More than 93% of all land in Israel is owned by the state or by public bodies and managed and administered by the Israel Land Authority (ILA). During the last decade, there has been increasing pressure to privatize the holdings suitable for development. The paper considers the central issues raised by the demand to curtail public land ownership in Israel. We first briefly summarize the main arguments for and against this kind of land ownership system. The next sections focus on the background of the existing regime and describe current land market policies of the ILA. The final section examines the claims about the shortage of developable land and discusses the factors and processes, which seem to explain the current demand to privatize the ILA.