No State, Just a Shack or Tent

In recent years, it has been observed that several laws concerning public life have been enacted; however, they were immature and did not undergo serious examination. In fact, there were presidential decrees issued, then withdrawn and reconsidered, due to the incompetence of the legal drafters among the esteemed advisors.

Revising and reconsidering is not a flaw. A few months ago, I noticed that the solar energy law published by the Ministry of Local Government imposed a tax on electricity generation from sunlight, and later perhaps from wind, which impacted my article and became a public opinion issue. The Prime Minister thankfully froze this law because the law was imposed by the World Bank to destroy the economy of poor countries, rendering them disabled, as it was said.

In the matter of land settlement, we noted that most of the settlement work was marred by some correct procedures while the rest were incorrect in surveying, identification, and registration, leading to the theft of lands and their annexation by neighbors, especially the property of heirs abroad.

Personally, I have a piece of land registered in the old financial records of five dunams, and after it was surveyed by ignorant identifiers, it was reduced by half. We all know that the registered area in the old financial records undervalued the land; for example, ten dunams would be registered as two dunams or less, so how does it shrink to half during the settlement while it should have doubled! The survey during the settlement relied on identifiers greedy for a hundred shekels for accompanying the settlement survey.

There are many injustices in surveying and registration, and engineering offices have amassed funds effortlessly, just like local councils in return for settlement. If the settlement were to be redone, we would find that many lands have been reduced or stolen from rightful heirs, with forgery of names occurring.

Thus, every settlement process needs to be reconsidered. The field should be reopened to those wanting to object again, unlike what has happened so far.

Moreover, there are mistakes committed by engineering offices that amount to fraud. When an engineering office submits a lot division and survey for an incomplete piece of land from its side and the owner's name does not appear in the lists, the office will tell you, "Whatever horse you have, ride it," and it takes years for you to follow up with the head of the settlement, only to be told that your file is lost. After much hardship and several follow-ups with the former Minister of the Land Authority and the Chairman of the Settlement Authority multiple times, and after years, you discover that the file is incomplete.

You must redo the division again, and then you are told that the tax increased in 1924, even though you submitted and paid the fees to the municipality and the engineering office years before that. You will have to pay nearly a thousand dinars for each dunam, and if you don’t like it, write a complaint and file a lawsuit against the surveyor, the son of a crocodile, who handled the surveying and division years ago, and expect to wait years since the judiciary is slow.

You also discover that the agricultural water well for collecting rainwater is also subject to a tax; while the occupation is filling agricultural wells, the lawmaker is imposing charges on the well if it is outside the occupation authority.

When I wrote two decades ago that we are practically not building the foundations of a state but rather the foundations of a shack ready to fall, some protested against that. And here we are, finding ourselves in a shack or a tent.