Defense minister bans private land ownership on eastern border
Al-Masry Al-Youm Sun, 23/12/2012 - 17:46
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/defense-minister-bans-private-land-ownership-eastern-border

Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday banned the private
ownership, rental and use of nearly all land on Egypt’s eastern border.

The decree, covering what spokesperson Ahmed Mohamed Ali explained on the
military’s official Facebook page as “strategic areas of military
importance,” covers land five kilometers west of the border, which separates
Egypt from Israel and the Gaza Strip. Land in the city of Rafah, near to
Gaza, is an exception to the decree.

According to Law 143/1981, the defense minister determines areas of
strategic military importance. The military maintains a database or these
areas and its authorities supervise them. They cannot be used for
non-military purposes without the approval of the defense minister.

Sisi’s decision, published as Law 203/2012 in the Egyptian Gazette, a
bulletin in which new government laws are printed, also bans the private
ownership, rental and use of land on islands, protectorates and
archaeological sites in Red Sea Governorate.

The second article of the defense minister’s decision says only Egyptians
and people possessing Egyptian citizenship have the right to own land in the
Sinai Peninsula. After the government began to receive requests to purchase
state-owned land in Sinai in November, individuals and corporations
reportedly submitted an unusually high number of requests.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm