In contravention to the Torah, the Knesset approved a streamlined procedure for land privatization. Previously, Israeli land could only be leased for forty-nine years.
Now the Arabs, who enjoy extensive Saudi financing, can switch from buying properties to buying land. Arabs commonly pay well above the market value of properties, and there is no shortage of unscrupulous Jews willing to sell them the land.
The government has misrepresented the issue as economic, but it is nationalist and religious.
