During its weekly meeting held today, Sunday, the occupation government is moving towards approving a step described as dangerous and unprecedented, which stipulates the immediate commencement of land organization and registration operations, known as 'Tabu', in various areas of the occupied West Bank. This initiative is considered the first of its kind since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, as it directly aims to change the legal status of thousands of dunams and convert them into properties belonging to what is called 'state lands'.
The plan, led by the ministerial trio Yariv Levin, Bezalel Smotrich, and Israel Katz, sets a timeline extending until 2030 to register about 15% of the lands classified as (C). Through this measure, the occupation authorities seek to impose a new legal reality that allows them absolute control over any areas whose owners do not possess definitive proof of ownership, which opens the door for unprecedented settlement expansion under administrative cover.
Data indicates that these moves come in the context of a frantic race with the Palestinian Authority, as the occupation government accuses the Palestinian side of carrying out parallel documentation and organization operations in those areas. The new Israeli decision aims to thwart any Palestinian efforts to establish ownership, considering that the Palestinian move entrenches a field reality that violates the agreements signed between the two parties.
Procedurally, the commander of the Central Region in the occupation army will be tasked with overseeing the commencement of inventory and field survey operations, with the establishment of a specialized administration affiliated with the land registration authority. Legal circles in the occupation government estimate that completing this process comprehensively may require three full decades, given the historical and legal complexities that have accumulated for decades in the West Bank's land records.
This decision carries deep political dimensions, as observers see it as 'creeping annexation' that imposes Israeli sovereignty de facto without the need for a formal and internationally controversial political declaration. By incorporating the occupied lands into the Israeli 'Tabu' system, this geography is administratively and legally integrated with the system applied within the Green Line, undermining any future opportunities for the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state.
On the economic and settlement front, land registration will provide what is called 'legal certainty' for settlers and settlement companies, facilitating sales, purchases, and infrastructure development. This measure will also enable settlers to obtain mortgage loans secured by these officially registered lands, which previously posed a legal obstacle to them due to unclear ownership records.
The occupation government claims that the purpose of this step is to end the legal stalemate and provide a clear regulatory framework for properties, but the reality indicates a desire to legitimize settlement outposts and facilitate the confiscation of communal lands. The conversion of thousands of dunams into 'state lands' with a legal stroke of a pen will inevitably lead to a radical change in the demographic and geographical map of the West Bank in favor of the settlement project.
In conclusion, this trend represents a dangerous escalation in the tools of Israeli control, where law is used as a tool to entrench the occupation and transform it into a permanent reality. With the implementation of this plan, Palestinian families will face enormous legal challenges to prove their historical ownership before the occupation courts, under a system primarily aimed at dispossessing them of their lands for the benefit of continuous settlement expansion.
This move means that the occupation, even in the absence of a formal political decision for annexation, is effectively imposing its legal and administrative sovereignty on the land through bottom-up sovereignty pathways.
שתף את דעתך
The Occupation approves a plan to register 15% of Area 'C' lands in the West Bank in a first step since 1967