Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
The Israeli government has approved a landmark decision to begin land settlement and registration procedures in the occupied West Bank for the first time since the 1967 war, a move Palestinian officials describe as a de facto annexation and United Nations representatives warn could facilitate forced displacement.
The decision, endorsed by Israel’s cabinet on Sunday, authorizes the initiation of formal land registration processes across parts of the West Bank. According to Israel’s public broadcaster, the measure will allow extensive areas to be recorded as “state land,” potentially reshaping the legal landscape governing property ownership in the territory.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the decision was intended to prevent what he described as unilateral actions and to reinforce Israeli control. “We will be responsible for our land,” he stated, pledging to continue what he called a “settlement revolution” in the West Bank.
Israeli officials argue that the move is administrative and legal in nature, aimed at regulating land ownership in areas where formal registration has been frozen for decades. The last comprehensive land settlement procedures in the West Bank date back to the period before Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Middle East war.
However, the Palestinian presidency condemned the decision as a dangerous escalation, accusing Israel of transforming large parts of the West Bank into “state property.” In a statement, Palestinian officials characterized the measure as tantamount to annexation of occupied land in violation of international law.
A Slow but Strategic Shift
According to the Israeli daily Israel Hayom, authorities are expected to implement the registration process gradually and cautiously, ensuring that regulatory bodies gather all relevant legal documentation for each parcel of land. Under the policy, lands not proven to be privately owned could be registered in the name of the state.
While presented as a technical step, the implications are potentially far-reaching. Land registration confers legal clarity and strengthens claims of authority. Critics argue that even in the absence of a formal political declaration extending Israeli law to the West Bank, systematic land registration under state ownership could consolidate Israeli sovereignty on the ground “from the bottom up.”
The decision follows earlier moves by Israel’s security cabinet to expand enforcement and oversight powers in areas classified as A and B under the 1995 Oslo II Accord. Under that agreement, Area A falls under full Palestinian civil and security control, Area B under Palestinian civil control and Israeli security control, and Area C comprising roughly 60 percent of the West Bank, remains under full Israeli control.
Recent cabinet measures have extended Israeli enforcement activities, including actions related to unlicensed construction, water usage, and environmental or archaeological concerns, into areas administered by the Palestinian Authority. The expanded authority allows for demolitions and property seizures even in zones previously considered under Palestinian civil jurisdiction.
UN Raises Concerns Over Displacement
The move has drawn concern from the United Nations. Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned that expanding Israeli control mechanisms in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority raises serious concerns.
In written responses to media inquiries, Shamdasani said that such steps could create conditions that facilitate indirect forced displacement through the accumulation of pressure on Palestinian communities rather than through formal expulsion orders.
She described the West Bank as already experiencing a “coercive environment” for Palestinians—one that has intensified significantly since October 7, 2023, when war erupted between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. According to the UN human rights office, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since that date, with fatalities attributed to Israeli forces and settlers whom the UN considers to be illegal under international law.
The UN has also documented patterns of violence including physical assaults, arbitrary detentions in what it described as inhumane conditions, and increasing restrictions on freedom of movement. These restrictions, Shamdasani said, have impaired access to farmland, workplaces, food supplies, schools, and healthcare services.
She warned that the cumulative effect of these policies may amount to the consolidation of an unlawful annexation and could constitute clear violations of international law. The UN human rights office has for years reported what it describes as systematic discrimination against Palestinians in the West Bank, documenting practices that it says may rise to the level of apartheid.
Broader Political Stakes
The land registration initiative comes amid intensified Israeli settlement expansion and heightened tensions across the occupied territories. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, Israeli military operations, arrests, and settler activity in the West Bank have increased significantly, according to Palestinian officials, who report more than 1,100 fatalities, over 11,000 injuries, and tens of thousands of arrests.
For supporters within Israel’s governing coalition, the registration plan represents a long-overdue assertion of administrative order and national rights in disputed territory. For Palestinians and much of the international community, it signals a strategic deepening of Israeli control that could alter the political horizon of the conflict.
At its core, the controversy underscores a fundamental dispute over sovereignty, legality, and the future of a territory long seen as central to any potential two-state solution. Whether framed as bureaucratic reform or incremental annexation, the decision to resume land registration after nearly six decades marks a significant new chapter in the evolving dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
