This is the beginning of a long bureaucratic process. Incidentally, this type of process has existed since the time of the Ottomans, more than 100 years ago. Its aim is to define the ownership of land. During this process, which usually takes a good few years, all aspects of the ownership and the rights to this land are investigated by the civil administration. At every point during this bureaucratic process people, both Palestinians and Israelis, have the right to submit an appeal to the civil administration by showing or proving through documents that they are the owners. If at the end of this process not even one person is found to be the owner of the estate, only then will the whole area be described as state land.

Another thing that I should mention is the fact that all of the declarations regarding any lands in Israel as state land go through authorisation by the attorney general of Israel and, like any juridical or administrative procedure, every description of land as state land is subject to Israeli juridical review. At the end of this process, people can appeal all the way to the Israeli supreme court.

That is the situation. I hope it explains the points you raised.