ISRAEL LANDS AUTHORITY

Agency responsible for administering state-owned land, which comprised some 90 percent of pre-1967 Israel. In the prestate period, responsibility for purchasing and reclaiming areas ofPalestinefor Jewishsettlementwas held by theJewish National Fund(JNF). After independence, many of these functions passed naturally to state institutions, including the Israel Lands Authority, with the efforts of the JNF directed to the reclamation of uncultivable land. Though initially part of the Ministry ofAgriculture, the Lands Authority was placed under the jurisdiction of the new Ministry of National Infrastructure established in 1996 by theBenjamin Netanyahugovernment.