Dr. Rassem Khamaisi examines the customs and social accommodations governing Arab society on issues of land management, among them: identifying boundaries, parceling land, land uses and land holding. All these developed in a rural society in which land passed on from one generation to the next. Conversely, Khamisi also examines the development of land legislation in Israel and its impacts on land management under conditions of urbanization. He highlights the differences between the two systems (customs versus regulations) from social, economic, cultural and political aspects and considers their planning implications on land uses and spatial development.
Based on this the author proposes tools and mechanisms to reduce the disparities and contradictions between customs and regulations and to create the conditions for implementing outline planning and for improving the efficacy of land management. These should be carried out alongside measures of confidence-building in the system.
These measures will facilitate the implementation of outline planning and the unfreezing of land for public use in Arab localities.