Overview
- Ministers approved launching formal land-title settlement in the occupied West Bank, enabling authorities to designate specific areas for registration.
- The initiative was advanced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich with Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Defense Minister Israel Katz, who presented it as bolstering settlement policy and Israeli control.
- Claimants must submit documentation to establish ownership or face having unregistered or “abandoned” plots recorded as state property, a process critics describe as opaque and onerous.
- Peace Now estimates the policy could allow Israel to take over up to 83% of Area C—about half of the West Bank—and warns it will facilitate settlement expansion.
- The Palestinian Authority called the move de‑facto annexation, and the EU, Germany and several Arab states issued condemnations, while Israel framed the decision as a security and governance response to PA land actions.