Bimkom: registration impossible, Netanyahu's unprecedented expropriation of Palestinian land
The Israeli association that fights against the political use of urban planning in the West Bank to seize land from Palestinians explains the bad faith of the rule that requires proof of ownership in Area C. At stake is 58% of the land in a context where there was no land registry before 1967. Activists and NGOs speak of an ‘unprecedented measure’ since the Six-Day War. Michal Braier: “discriminatory” legal system, ‘systematic’ expropriation to favour settlements.
Milan (AsiaNews) - An unprecedented measure since the Six Day War of 1967, a massive expropriation of land in the West Bank resulting from a policy of annexation that disregards international law and the very limits set by the US ally.
This is how the Israeli NGO Bimkom-Planning and Human Rights, formed by urban planners and architects fighting to protect Palestinians on their land, comments to AsiaNews on the new law passed by the Netanyahu government and denounced in recent hours as a disguised form of annexation.
According to Bimkom, this decision ‘exacerbates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’, precludes any ‘political solution’ to the conflict and violates the rights of Palestinians ‘to a dignified life, proper spatial development and self-determination’.
Just a few days ago, while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, US President Donald Trump confirmed his opposition to the rush to build settlements and take land away from Palestinians.
Yet on Sunday, the Israeli government approved a measure that requires anyone who owns land in the so-called Area C to prove it, or face the transfer of ownership to the state. This is only apparently an administrative procedure: in fact, it risks transferring a large part of the West Bank into the hands of the land registry, a step that has not been taken in sixty years.
In order to register the area, the legislation requires documents proving ownership according to a procedure that, in most cases, becomes impossible due to scattered archives, unprocessed paperwork and stringent requirements. Experts point out that it will be difficult for Palestinians to assert their rights dating back to when there was no land registry. In this way, the land can be declared “state property”, which is often the first step towards indirect transfer to settlers, in what is effectively a de facto annexation.
Settlement revolution
It is no coincidence that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli politician most directly linked to the settler world, applauded the law, stating that the measure allows for the continuation of “the settlement revolution” and “the takeover of all parts of our country”. He added that the new registration process will “prevent conflicts, ensure legal certainty and allow for legal and responsible development” in Judea and Samaria (the biblical name used for the Palestinian lands in the West Bank, ed.). This is further confirmation of Netanyahu's policy of preventing the creation of a Palestinian state, which he considers a “threat to national security”.
Specifically, the measure - approved by the pro-settlement minister together with his Justice colleague Yariv Levin and Defence Minister Israel Katz - concerns land that belongs to the Palestinians but is, in practice, governed and controlled by Israel.
The process concerns Area C, one of the three areas into which the territory was divided under the Oslo Accords of the 1990s and which, at least in theory, would have been part of a future Palestinian state.
It accounts for about 60% of the space that has remained entirely under the administrative control of the Jewish state, even though more than 300,000 Palestinians live there. In the days leading up to the ruling, the Netanyahu government had approved other control measures, including the lifting of the ban on the sale of land in the West Bank to Israeli Jews and the publication of land registry records to facilitate sales.
Until now, non-Muslims were not allowed to purchase land in their own name, but only through private companies. The Palestinian National Authority speaks of a “serious escalation” and a “blatant violation of international law”, while Hamas considers it a “null and void” attempt to “Judaise” the land. Condemnation has also come from Jordan, Qatar, Turkey and Egypt.
Mega theft of Palestinian land
Among the first critical voices was that of the Israeli peace movement Peace Now: "A few days after Trump's statement emphasising his opposition to Israel's annexation of the West Bank, the government has decided to proceed with a move that amounts to full annexation. We warn President Trump: Netanyahu is deceiving him‘ by pushing ahead with the plan ’right under his nose. The government's decision on the settlement of land in the West Bank is a mega-appropriation of Palestinian property. The registration of the land will result in the transfer of ownership of the vast majority of Area C to the state, leaving Palestinians with no practical possibility of realising their property rights. It is no coincidence,‘ they conclude, ’that international law prohibits the settlement of land in occupied territories and that Israel itself issued an order prohibiting it after 1967."
According to the cabinet resolution, promoted by Defence, Finance and Justice, the commander of the IDF Central Command – the de facto military governor of the West Bank – will be able to authorise the Land Registry Department to carry out the land registration process.
A directorate will thus be set up to carry out the work, with an initial allocation of nearly million and dozens of new jobs. Area C comprises approximately 3.3 million dunams (thousand square metres), divided between 1.4 million registered plots (42%) and 1.9 million unregistered plots (58%). The process of registering property titles will allow Israeli control over the 1.9 million dunams of unregistered land (58% of Area C).
Approximately one million dunams of this area have been declared state property and can now be formally registered in the name of the state, along with other areas where Palestinians will be unable to prove ownership.
Illegal exercise of sovereignty
In a comprehensive study sent to AsiaNews, Michal Braier of Bimkom-Planning and Human Rights points out that these measures ‘are in line’ with the Israeli government's ‘annexation policy’ and constitute ‘an exercise of sovereign authority prohibited’ by international law. ‘The intent,’ he continues, ‘is not to facilitate the rule of law, but rather to further consolidate Israel's apartheid regime in the West Bank, based on a discriminatory legal system, promoting Israeli territorial expansion at the expense of Palestinian space.’ This process of land registration, or resolution of property titles (Solt), has been frozen for almost 60 years and is now being revived in defiance of the blatant violation of the law, as evidenced by precedents in East Jerusalem.
For the expert, it is a ‘systematic expropriation’ of Palestinian land ‘to promote’ the settlements. The movement retraces the latest steps: "In May, the government ordered the military command to resume control of the Solt in the West Bank; in December, it assigned 41 public contracts to carry out the work; in January, the Supreme Court rejected a petition filed by human rights groups (Yesh Din, Bimkom, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, HaMoked), considering it “premature”. And in February, the decision was taken to complete the Solt for 15% of unregistered land within four years."
Bimkom was founded in 1999 by urban planners and architects with the aim of strengthening democracy and human rights in spatial planning and housing policies in Israel and Area C of the West Bank, under Israeli control. It promotes the development of planning policies and practices that are fair and respectful of the rights of local communities, with greater regard for the weaker sectors of society.
“Land registration,” explains Michal Braier, 'is the process by which land ownership is definitively registered with the state. International law is clear: as an occupying power, Israel cannot exercise sovereign powers, including the definitive determination of ownership, in an occupied territory.‘
’This position was reinforced by the 2024 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ruled that Solt-like proceedings in East Jerusalem violate the laws of occupation. Furthermore, the decision to authorise the Israeli civil authorities to manage land registration procedures is also a clear indication of the annexation of the area. The process envisaged in the West Bank, he concludes, is therefore not an administrative formality, but a direct extension of the government's policy to promote the annexation of large areas of the West Bank.
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