Land Registration
The Israeli Security Cabinet announced on May 11, 2025, approval of a decision to resume land registration procedures officially in West Bank areas, after a halt that lasted since 1967. This decision represents a shift in Israeli policy towards land management in West Bank areas.
Background and Context
The Israeli authorities justified this step as aimed at confronting what they considered "attempts by the Palestinian Authority to register lands unilaterally," while the decision sparked widespread reactions at local and international levels, given its legal and political implications affecting the existing legal status in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Legal Analysis Under International Law
This decision taken by the Israeli Security Cabinet to resume official land registration in the West Bank is considered a dangerous legal step from the perspective of international law, and carries dimensions that touch the essence of the legal status of Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
First: Clear Violation of International Humanitarian Law Rules
According to the Hague Convention of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the occupying state is not sovereign over the territories it occupies, and may not make permanent changes or exercise registration or disposal acts with lands that exceed the requirements of temporary administration for security and public order.
Specifically, Article (43) of the Hague Regulations states that the occupant must respect the existing laws in the occupied territory unless there is military necessity that prevents this, which does not apply to registration operations aimed at enhancing long-term control of the Israeli occupation.
Second: Consolidation of Creeping Annexation and Illegal Seizure of Lands
The official registration step constitutes an attempt to give internal legal character to a settlement reality that is internationally illegal, which is known as "creeping annexation," and violates Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016) which confirmed that all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, "have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation under international law."
Third: Undermining Palestinian Efforts in Establishing Property Rights
The declared goal of the decision, which is to "curb the Palestinian Authority's efforts in land registration," reflects direct interference in the powers that are supposed to be subject to Palestinian self-administration according to the Oslo Agreements, and affects the principle of self-determination and the Palestinian people's exercise of sovereignty over their land, especially since they are the ones who own Turkish, British and Jordanian property deeds in it and most importantly are the ones who have been acting peacefully on it for hundreds of years.
Fourth: Potential Impact Before the International Criminal Court (ICC)
This decision may be used as additional evidence of the occupying state's intention to change the legal and demographic character of the occupied land, which enhances the possibility of holding it accountable based on the crime of transferring and settling population in occupied land under Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute.
Legal Conclusion
The Israeli decision represents a renewed violation of international law and human rights, and is considered an illegitimate measure that may exacerbate the conflict and undermine opportunities for a solution based on international law and UN resolutions. The international community, including the Security Council and the International Court of Justice, must act to ensure respect for the legal status of Palestinian territories.
Political Impact on the Palestinian Situation
The political impact of the Israeli decision on the Palestinian situation and its repercussions on the Palestinian people by resuming land registration in the West Bank is a development with deep political dimensions that go beyond the apparent procedural framework of the real estate registration process.
At the Palestinian level, this decision is seen as an additional step towards consolidating Israeli control over vast areas of the West Bank, and the inherited properties of citizen families for hundreds of years, especially in areas classified as (C), which constitute about 60% of the West Bank area.
The decision comes at a time when the Palestinian national project is witnessing increasing pressures, whether in terms of the stalled political settlement process or attempts to undermine the role of the Palestinian Authority in managing the civil affairs of Palestinian territories.