Guterres Demands Occupation Immediately Reverse West Bank Land Registration Measures

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, called on the occupation authorities to immediately and unconditionally reverse recent decisions related to the registration of vast areas of land in the occupied West Bank. This demand came through an official statement read by his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, in which he affirmed the categorical UN rejection of any unilateral steps aimed at changing the legal or demographic reality in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Guterres stressed in his statements that the continuation of these settlement policies and administrative procedures on the ground not only constitutes a flagrant violation of international law but also directly contributes to regional instability. He pointed out that these practices contradict the legal opinions issued by the International Court of Justice, which affirm the illegitimacy of the settlement presence and related policies in the territories occupied in 1967.

The Secretary-General warned that the path currently being pursued by the occupation government places serious obstacles in the way of international peace efforts aimed at ending the conflict. He explained that these steps systematically undermine the possibility of establishing an independent and geographically contiguous Palestinian state, making the two-state solution option elusive amidst the continuous expansion of land confiscation and the legitimization of settlement outposts.

In a related context, sources reported that Palestinian forces considered these decisions an attempt to legitimize the theft of land under flimsy legal pretexts such as 'state land.' The sources affirmed that the occupation government's approval of such decisions is null and void and does not change the historical and legal reality of the land, calling on the international community to take practical steps beyond verbal condemnation to stop the settlement encroachment.

Current measures are illegal according to International Court of Justice opinions and directly undermine the chances of achieving a two-state solution.