The government has approved a cabinet resolution to create a land registration process in Area C of the West Bank, which Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said was designed to “develop settlements” and was part of measures for the “de facto” annexation of the territory.
Under the cabinet resolution, a form of executive action, passed on Sunday night, the defense minister will order that “Israeli regional authorities” begin a land registration process and establish an inter-ministerial team prepare to carry out the land registration scheme within 60 days.
The resolution also declares that a land registry process being conducted by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank will have no legal validity in Israel, and orders security agencies to thwart the conduct of that registration process.
Defense Minister Israel Katz who, along with Smotrich, advanced the resolution, lauded the measure, saying that it “does justice for Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, and will strengthen, consolidate and broaden it.”
Settler groups and right-wing organizations praised the passage of the resolution as an assertion of Israeli sovereignty and land rights over the West Bank.
The Peace Now organization, which campaigns against the settlements, described the land registration initiative as a “mega theft of Palestinian land,” which it said would not enable Palestinians to fairly register their private land and constituted the next step to de facto annexation of the West Bank.
The ownership of some two-thirds of all West Bank land has never been formally registered. In Area C, which constitutes some 60% of the entire territory, the figure is similar, with two-thirds registered and one-third not registered, according to Peace Now.
The Jordanians began a land registration process when they controlled the West Bank between 1949 and 1967, but that process was halted in 1968 by Israel, after its capture of the territory in the Six Day War the year before.
Smotrich said that the cabinet resolution was “part of the normalization and de facto sovereignty revolution that we are leading in Judea and Samaria,” and that for the first time “the State of Israel is taking responsibility for the territory as a permanent sovereign.”
This, he said, “will create legal certainty, enable land reserves for settlement development,” and prevent what he said were the Palestinian Authority’s efforts “to take over open areas.”
The finance minister added that the land registry was part of a broader governmental project to bring in another one million people to live in the West Bank settlements to “strengthen the security belt of the State of Israel, and eliminate the danger of the Palestinian terrorist state.”
Yoni Mizrahi of the Peace Now organization expressed concern that, in light of Smotrich’s comments that the goal of the land registration process was to advance settlement development, it would be extremely hard for Palestinians in Area C to effectively register their private property.
He also asserted that under international law, Israel does not have the right to conduct such a land registry given that it holds the West Bank under what is known as a belligerent occupation, in which actions permanently altering the status of the territory are prohibited.
“If you can conduct a land registration process and control how it is carried out, then this is annexation,” said Mizrahi.
Peace Now asserted that Israel as the “occupying power” could not be a neutral party to fairly adjudicate land claims, and that Palestinian landowners would not have access to the documents and information in Israel’s possession to prove their ownership rights.
As a result, Palestinian landowners face a severe risk of losing title to their land in the registration process, the organization said.
The right-wing Regavim organization, which campaigns against illegal Palestinian construction in the West Bank, said that the new land registration process was “a pivotal advancement” in thwarting the Palestinian Authority’s land registration effort.
“For years, Israel stood idle while the Palestinian Authority aggressively pursued land registration, deploying hundreds of workers and funneling millions of dollars from international sources,” said the organization. “We extend our gratitude to Defense Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and our esteemed partners, for their resolute leadership in advancing this critical initiative to safeguard our territorial integrity, our land, and secure our collective future.”
And the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization representing settlement municipal authorities around the West Bank, called the measure “fantastic news” for settlements in the West Bank.
“The land registration in Judea and Samaria is another expression of the change in perception that is so necessary in the area, [that] the State of Israel is the sovereign,” said the organization.