Yaffa and her father, Alaa Al-Batran, walk amid the rubble of their home after it was demolished by Israeli forces in the village of Idhna, west of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, on 12 May 2025. [Getty]
The acceleration of Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank lands was recently crowned by the Israeli Security Cabinet’s approval of the resumption of land ownership registration in Area C, which is under full Israeli control and constitutes approximately 61 percent of the West Bank.
Israeli Defence Minister Yisrael Katz said in a statement issued by his office that the decision “restores the prestige of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria and thwarts the Palestinian Authority’s attempts to control Area C.”
Land registration will be managed by the Israeli Ministry of Defence, and the Land Registration Unit of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) will regulate and register land ownership in Area C, including issuing sales permits, collecting fees, and supervising registration procedures.
Most Palestinian villages and towns are located in “Area C,” according to the Oslo Accords. This decision amounts to the loss of the majority of their lands, leaving very little space for their residents.
Land theft
The town of Qaryut, south of Nablus, is a case in point. Its total area is 22,000 dunams, but most of it is classified as Area C, while only 1,630 dunams remain classified as Area B, which has also not been spared by Israeli confiscation orders.
Anti-settlement activist Bashar al-Qaryouti, a resident of the town, said to The New Arab that this latest decision will be disastrous for its residents. After seizing 700 dunams of land classified as Area B, residents are left with only 900 dunams of land, which is the land containing their homes.
In addition, Israel has issued orders to demolish 29 homes in the town, completing the seizure of all land and natural and environmental resources.
“The settlers have taken control of the springs and the lands, and these days they are attacking homes and their owners. We have no means of defending our lands except to remain there,” he said.
Since the launch of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, Qaryut, like dozens of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank, has been subjected to organised settler attacks aimed at seizing the remaining lands and consolidating the theft of lands in sites classified as “Area C”.
“The settler groups have taken control of all the lands in Area C and established three settlement outposts. With the help of the Israeli army, they have closed off all areas that reach the lands, and the property of the citizens there has been seized,” Al-Qaryouti added.
According to him, there is no law protecting Palestinians, and there are no institutions working effectively to protect their rights to their land.
Land registration in the occupied West Bank began during the Jordanian era, but was frozen by the Israeli authorities after the occupation in 1967. The Oslo Accords restricted these operations for the Palestinian Authority to Areas A and B and prohibited them in Area C.
The Oslo II Accords, signed in 1995, divided the West Bank into three areas: “Area A,” under full Palestinian control; “Area B,” under Israeli security control and Palestinian civil and administrative control; and “Area C,” under Israeli civil, administrative, and security control, with the lion’s share of the territory.
‘A slap to the face of legal justice’
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories expressed deep concern over reports that the Israeli Security Council has decided to resume land registration in Area C of the occupied West Bank.
“This registration, which has been suspended since 1968, appears to be the latest tool Israel is using to seize Palestinian land and further its illegal annexation of the West Bank,” it said in a statement.
Peace Now Movement warned that Israel’s decision would dispossess Palestinians of their lands, noting that the main consequences of this are the establishment of a final land ownership registry, which would almost completely close the door to Palestinians claiming ownership of their lands, the collective dispossession of Palestinians of most of their lands in Area C and registering them in the name of the state, and the process of annexation and imposing sovereignty over the occupied territories.
“This is a blatant and direct violation of international law. Moreover, the land registration in the land registry will be in the names of Israeli citizens, which will lead to legal complications and exorbitant costs when a political settlement based on a two-state solution is reached,” the Peace Now Movement said.
Raed Muqadi, a researcher at the Land Research Centre, told TNA that the decision is a step toward the de facto annexation of Palestinian lands.
“It is unjust and violates all international agreements, particularly the Geneva Convention, which stipulates the right of any citizen under occupation to maintain ownership of their land, inherit it, and establish a genetic line to protect their land,” he said.
“But what Israel has done is a widespread obstruction of Palestinian ownership, particularly in Area C, which will make it easier for settler groups to seize land, change the region’s features, and expand settlement activity,” Muqadi added.
“The decision is a stick in the wheel of legal proceedings, as if a Palestinian wanted to file a lawsuit against the settlers, he would do so based on the ownership papers, inheritance records, and registration papers he possesses,” he further noted.
“If Israel discourages, delays, or suspends the issuance of the papers, this will hinder any legal case that might be submitted in the future […] it will be a slap in the face of the judiciary and legal justice, and will make the C lands vulnerable to the settlers who devour them on a daily basis,” he concluded.
