Legal Coup in the West Bank: Israeli Decisions to Legitimise Direct Settlement and Withdraw PA Powers

The Israeli Ministerial Committee for Political and Security Affairs (the Cabinet) has approved a series of dramatic decisions aimed at bringing about fundamental changes in the structure of land administration in the occupied West Bank. These steps, approved on February 8th, are intended to accelerate the pace of settlement expansion and facilitate settlers' control over Palestinian properties through new legal and administrative tools.\n\nThe new package included the annulment of the Jordanian Law, in effect for decades, which prohibited the sale of Palestinian lands and properties to Jews or unregistered local companies. Under this amendment, settlers can now directly purchase land in the West Bank as individuals, without the need to circumvent the law through the establishment of intermediary companies, as was previously the practice.\n\nIn a move that ends security and political oversight of real estate transactions, the Cabinet decided to abolish the requirement for prior approval to carry out purchase operations. This oversight system used to verify the authenticity of documents and prevent forgery, in addition to ensuring that individual settlement initiatives did not conflict with the general governmental policies of the Hebrew state.\n\nThe decisions also included declassifying land registers (Tabu) and opening them for public inspection, a measure that observers warned would facilitate the seizure of absentee properties or manipulation of private ownership. These registers were kept strictly confidential to protect the privacy of Palestinian owners and prevent the exploitation of legal loopholes by settlement associations that had lobbied for years to achieve this breakthrough.\n\nOn the ground, the Cabinet approved expanding the scope of work of the Civil Administration's enforcement agencies to include areas classified as (A) and (B), which are nominally under the civil administration of the Palestinian Authority. This decision gives the occupation authorities the green light to carry out demolition operations and halt construction in the heart of Palestinian communities, thereby bypassing the divisions of the Oslo Accords signed in 1993.\n\nSources reported that the new enforcement powers will focus on three vital areas: heritage and archaeological sites, environmental violations, and water issues. These pretexts allow Israeli bodies to intervene directly in Palestinian development projects and issue demolition orders under the guise of protecting archaeological sites or preventing environmental damage, thus reducing the area available for Palestinian urban growth.\n\nIn Hebron, the Council decided to withdraw licensing and construction powers in the Ibrahimi Mosque area and the vicinity of settlements from the Hebron Municipality and transfer them to the Israeli Civil Administration. This step is a direct violation of the Hebron Protocol signed in 1997, which grants the Palestinian Municipality exclusive rights to planning and construction within the city limits.\n\nThe transfer of powers in Hebron aims to enable the Israeli government to expand existing settlement outposts and establish new settlement units without the need for approval from Palestinian authorities. This decision also facilitates construction changes in the Ibrahimi Mosque and its surroundings, which had faced continuous legal and administrative opposition from the Hebron Municipality and human rights organizations.\n\nIn parallel, the Cabinet decided to establish a special directorate to manage 'Rachel's Tomb' site in Bethlehem, with independent government budgets allocated for its development. This step aims to strengthen religious and political control over sensitive sites in the heart of Palestinian cities, similar to the municipal committee previously established to manage settler affairs in Hebron with direct funding from the Israeli Ministry of Interior.\n\nDefense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in a joint statement, indicated that these decisions aim to remove "bureaucratic obstacles" that have persisted for decades. The ministers considered these steps to reshape the legal reality in the West Bank in a way that serves the settlement project and makes it difficult to reverse these measures in any future political settlements.\n\nThese trends reflect a shift in the Israeli approach towards the West Bank, where temporary military orders are being replaced by structural legal changes that approach the concept of "creeping annexation." Since the West Bank is not subject to official Israeli sovereignty, the implementation of these decisions will be through military orders issued by the regional commander under direct guidance from the political level.\n\nThe decision also included reactivating a government mechanism for land purchase through the "Government Property Officer" in the West Bank, an apparatus that operates in parallel with the Israel Land Authority. This step revives practices that were common in the 1970s and 1980s, as the Hebrew state now seeks direct purchases from Palestinians through official and public channels.\n\nLegal experts warned that the abolition of oversight on real estate transactions would open the door wide to fraud and forgery in the absence of legal protection for original owners. Most land transactions in the West Bank occur under complex circumstances, often under economic or security pressures, making the abolition of the "purchase permit" a tool to legitimize illegal seizure.\n\nThese decisions come at a time when the Knesset is witnessing parallel moves to legislate laws expanding Israeli archaeological oversight in Palestinian Authority areas. It appears that the Israeli government has chosen the direct executive path through the Cabinet to accelerate the imposition of facts on the ground without waiting for the completion of lengthy legislative procedures in parliament, thereby deepening the already exhausted Palestinian sovereignty crisis.\n\nThese decisions seek to remove obstacles that have existed for decades; thereby reshaping the legal and civil reality in the West Bank.