Trading with the Enemy Act 1939

The Trading with the Enemy Act 1939 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which makes it a criminal offence to conduct trade with the enemy in wartime, with a penalty of up to seven years' imprisonment. The bill passed rapidly through Parliament in just two days, from 3 to 5 September 1939, and the Act was passed on 5 September 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War. It is still in force.
The act's provisions about the custody of enemy property were inspiration for the Israeli Absentee Property Regulations and other laws passed in 1948 about the use of the Palestinians' properties by the state of Israel. However, the 1939 act said that enemy property was only being confiscated "ith a view to preventing the payment of money to enemies and of preserving enemy property in contemplation of arrangements to be made at the conclusion of peace..."