The little-known Plia Albeck, perhaps one of Israel's most influential lawyers in the 1970s and 1980s, passed away today aged 68.
Albeck, as this brief obituary notes, was the Israeli civil servant responsible for determining the legal status of land in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). On the basis of her legal opinions, over 100 Jewish settlements were established on lands she determined to be ownerless state land.
I had the privilege of meeting her once. She was possibly the leading expert ever on the complex legal issues affecting West Bank land, where the applicable laws derived from the Ottoman, British, Jordanian and Israeli legal systems.
Ha'aretz profiled her in this April 2004 interview.
May her memory be blessed.
2 comments:
One thing people don't like to remember is that we couldn't establish a yishuv until every inch was vetted as ownerless.
Often fending off claims based on forged documents, etc.
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