Law allowing settlers to register land in the West Bank circumvents international law

In an article of mine a month ago, I mentioned that there are many ways and tools to annex West Bank lands, including legal and judicial amendments. This law (the law allowing settlers to register lands in the West Bank) came as a tool to accelerate the annexation of the West Bank:

1. When the West Bank was occupied, Jordanian law was and still is in effect, and according to the Jordanian Land Law of 1953, the sale and purchase of land is prohibited except for citizens residing in the West Bank.

2. Under international law, the occupying power must apply the law in force in the occupied territories on the eve of the occupation, i.e. Jordanian law.

3. In 1971, the military governor issued a military order amending Jordanian law to allow companies registered in the Israeli Civil Administration (the de facto governor of the West Bank) to own land and register it in their names, provided that they obtain a purchase permit from the Land Authority, approved by the Minister of War, so as not to give settlers free rein to impose control over the land and security.

4. This proposed law circumvents international law by explicitly stating in its first clause that the military governor is to issue a decision annulling the Jordanian law of 1953. In this case, it was formulated in this manner to prevent the claim that the government passed legislation that applies outside its sovereign borders (the West Bank), while another article of the same law stipulates that “all citizens have the right to purchase and register land in the West Bank in their names.” This means that a law issued by the Knesset by members elected by the Israelis is applicable in the West Bank to the lands of Palestinian citizens who had no role in electing the Knesset members who passed this law, meaning that a law issued by those with the right to vote is applicable to individuals without rights!

5. This law gives the opportunity to extremist settlers who do not hesitate to seize Palestinian property by force, by intimidation, by carrying out extensive fraud operations, stealing large amounts of land, registering it, and building settlement outposts on it, to obstruct the dream of a state, especially since the text of the law exempts settlers from obtaining a purchase permit, as before, and is satisfied with obtaining a real estate transaction license, which is a purely formal procedure.

6. The law in its current form violates international norms and is considered a “West Bank Annexation Law.”

7. This law allows settlers to be owners of the place, and not to be trespassers on Palestinian lands.

8. This law means privatizing sovereignty and security and granting them to settler gangs.

9. This law must be repealed, and the Palestinian Authority must announce the cancellation of the Oslo Agreement, because this law is an explicit declaration of the invalidity of the Oslo Agreement.