The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now said the process likely amounts to a “mega land grab” from Palestinians.
“This move is very dramatic and allows the state to gain control of almost all of Area C,” said Hagit Ofran, the director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch program. Area C refers to the 60% of the West Bank that is under full Israeli military control, according to agreements reached in the 1990s with the Palestinians.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ office in a statement called the decision “a grave escalation and a flagrant violation of international law,” which amounts to “de facto annexation.” It called on the international community, especially the U.N. Security Council and the United States, to intervene immediately.
Israeli steps in recent months
The decision is the latest step to deepen Israeli control over the West Bank. In recent months, Israel has greatly expanded construction in Jewish settlements, legalized outposts and made significant bureaucratic changes to its policies in the territory to strengthen its hold and weaken the Palestinian Authority.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said Palestinian Authority civil planning maps show that the authority has been advancing land registration procedures in Area C for years in violation of agreements that give Israel civil and military control over the area. It said Sunday's decision was made for greater transparency.
The decision was first announced last May but required further development before it was approved in this week’s Cabinet meeting. Under the decision, Israeli authorities will announce certain areas to undergo registration, which will force anyone who has a claim to the land to prove their ownership.
Ofran said the process for proving ownership can be “draconian” and is rarely transparent, meaning any land that undergoes the registration process in areas currently owned by Palestinians is likely to revert to Israeli state control.
“Palestinians will be sent to prove ownership in a way that they will never be able to do,” Ofran told The Associated Press. "And this way Israel might take over 83% of the Area C, which is about half of the West Bank.”
The registration process could start as soon as this year, she said.
The proposal had been put forward by some of Israel’s far-right members of the ruling coalition, including the Minister of Justice Yariv Levin. “The government of Israel is committed to strengthening its grip on all its parts, and this decision is an expression of that commitment,” he said.
A ‘dangerous escalation’
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry in a statement called on the international community to “assume its legal and moral responsibilities, and to compel Israel, the occupying power, to stop its dangerous escalation.”
Qatar’s foreign ministry said it considered Israel’s decision “an extension of its illegal plans to deprive the Palestinian people of their rights.”
Previous U.S. administrations have sharply condemned an expansion of Israeli activity and control in the West Bank, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a particularly close relationship with President Donald Trump. The two met last week in Washington, their seventh meeting in the past year.
And yet Trump has opposed annexation, Ofran noted.
Palestinians are not permitted to sell land privately to Israelis, though measures announced last week aim to nullify this. Currently, settlers can buy homes on land controlled by Israel’s government. Last week's decision also aimed to expand Israeli enforcement of several aspects of in the West Bank, including environmental and archaeological matters in Palestinian-administered areas.
More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 from Jordan and sought by the Palestinians for a future state. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in these areas to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
Over 300,000 Palestinians are estimated to live in Area C of the West Bank, with many more in surrounding communities dependent on its agricultural and grazing lands, including plots for which families retain land deeds or tax records dating back decades.
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Associated Press journalist Areej Hazboum in Jerusalem contributed to this report.