האפוטרופוס על הרכוש הנטוש והעיר רמלה 1948–:1963 ״חוליה הכרחית״ להעברת בעלות ברכוש נטוש או כוח מכונן של חיים ישראליים בעיר? (Hebrew)

This article discusses the gap between the administrative and temporary legal purpose reflected by the legislator’s appointment of a “custodian of abandoned Arab property” in July 1948 (later termed custodian of absentee property), and the long-term formative role the custodian actually played in the constitution of the city of Ramle, an imperial Arab city, from its surrender in July 1948 until its transit camps were liquidated in 1963. Two days after it surrendered, the city was emptied of its Arab residents. The Arab material-cultural space they inhabited now became abandoned property managed by the custodian and redistributed among the city’s Jewish residents and Israeli government institutions. Against this background, the article examines the connections between the custodian’s actions in the period under study and the changes that occurred in the urban space. I argue that in Ramle the custodian served not only as a temporary administrator but also as a constitutive force of the physical and social space. The existing research examines the institution of the custodian as a government arm and legal instrument that managed the spoils of war in legal, political, national, or moral contexts. In contrast, this article interweaves a social, cultural, political, and material history of Ramle as an Israeli city with the history of the institution of the custodian, whom the mayor designated “the city’s landlord.” This perspective, which links a spatial discussion with a legal process and the claim that arises from it, has not heretofore been investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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