Jerusalem — Israel’s authorities has accredited a course of to register land within the occupied West Financial institution as “state property,” drawing condemnation from Arab nations and critics who stated it might speed up annexation of the Palestinian territory.
Israel’s overseas ministry stated the measure, accredited late Sunday, would allow “clear and thorough clarification of rights to resolve authorized disputes” and was wanted after illegal land registration in areas managed by the Palestinian Authority.
However Egypt, Qatar and Jordan criticized the transfer as unlawful underneath worldwide legislation.
Arab nations, Palestinians name transfer “de facto starting” of annexation
In a press release, the Egyptian authorities referred to as it a “harmful escalation geared toward consolidating Israeli management over the occupied Palestinian territories.”
Qatar’s overseas ministry condemned the “determination to transform West Financial institution lands into so-called ‘state property’,” saying it might “deprive the Palestinian individuals of their rights.”
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Jordan’s overseas ministry stated in a press release that the nation “strongly condemns the actions of the Israeli authorities focusing on the annexation of occupied Palestinian land, most lately the illegitimate Israeli authorities determination changing lands within the West Financial institution into so-called ‘state property.’ This constitutes a blatant violation of worldwide legislation and worldwide humanitarian legislation, undermines the inalienable proper of the Palestinian individuals to self-determination, and obstructs the institution of their impartial sovereign state .”
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority referred to as for worldwide intervention to forestall the “de facto starting of the annexation course of and the undermining of the foundations of the Palestinian state.”
Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now referred to as the measure a “mega land seize.”
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The method will happen solely in Space C, which constitutes some 60% of West Financial institution territory and is underneath Israeli safety and administrative management.
“There was a number of ambiguity concerning the land, and Israel determined now to take care of it,” Peace Now co-directorJonathan Mizrachi advised AFP on Monday, including that the prevailing ambiguity over Space C land possession is probably going for use towards Palestinians.
“Quite a lot of land that Palestinians contemplate theirs, they’ll discover out it isn’t theirs underneath this new registration course of,” he stated, including the transfer will additional the Israeli proper’s annexation agenda.
The European Union additionally issued a press release condemning the transfer Monday as a “new escalation after latest measures already geared toward extending Israeli management” of the Palestinian territory.
“We reiterate that annexation is illegitimate underneath worldwide legislation,” EU overseas affairs spokesman Anouar El Anouni stated in a press release. “We name on Israel to reverse this determination.”
There was no rapid response from Israeli officers to the condemnation from the nation’s neighbors and the EU.
“Fast steps to alter completely the demography” of the West Financial institution
Final week, Israel’s safety cupboard accredited a collection of measures backed by far-right ministers to tighten management over areas of the West Financial institution administered by the Palestinian Authority underneath the Oslo accords, in place for the reason that Nineteen Nineties.
These measures, which additionally sparked worldwide backlash, embrace permitting Jewish Israelis to purchase West Financial institution land straight and permitting Israeli authorities to manage sure spiritual websites in areas underneath the Palestinian Authority’s management.
The strikes drew a joint assertion from eight Muslim-majority nations, together with shut U.S. allies Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, condemning “within the strongest phrases the unlawful Israeli selections and measures geared toward imposing illegal Israeli sovereignty, entrenching settlement exercise, and imposing a brand new authorized and administrative actuality within the occupied West Financial institution, thereby accelerating makes an attempt at its unlawful annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian individuals.”
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Palestinians see the West Financial institution as foundational to any future Palestinian state, however many on Israel’s spiritual proper wish to take over the land.
Round three million Palestinians reside within the territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
The most recent Israeli initiatives come amid a wider context of accelerating assaults by Israeli settlers towards Palestinians within the territory, in response to rights teams.
“We’re witnessing speedy steps to alter completely the demography of the occupied Palestinian territory, stripping its individuals of their lands and forcing them to go away,” United Nations rights chief Volker Turk stated in a latest assertion.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, greater than 500,000 Israelis reside in West Financial institution settlements and outposts, that are unlawful underneath worldwide legislation. Israel has carried out quite a few navy and police operations within the West Financial institution in recent times, accusing Hamas and different terrorist teams of working within the territory and utilizing it as a platform from which to launch assaults on Israel.
Trump administration quieter after repeatedly rejecting annexation
President Trump has opposed Israel’s annexation of the West Financial institution, saying stability within the territory helps maintain Israel safe, however he has circuitously criticized the newest Israeli measures, regardless of the worldwide outrage.
“I can’t permit Israel to annex the West Financial institution,” Mr. Trump advised reporters bluntly in September 2025. “There’s been sufficient [Israeli settlement expansion]. It is time to cease now.”
Vice President JD Vance criticized on Thursday a vote by the Israeli parliament to advance a invoice on the proposed annexation of the occupied West Financial institution, calling it “a really silly political stunt.”
“I personally take some insult to it,” Vance stated at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport as he departed the nation after his go to. “The West Financial institution is just not going to be annexed by Israel. The coverage of the Trump administration is that the West Financial institution won’t be annexed by Israel. That may proceed to be our coverage. And if individuals wish to take symbolic votes, they will do this, however we actually weren’t joyful about it.”
Many far-right nationalist members of the Israeli authorities have voiced hope since Mr. Trump received his second time period in workplace, nevertheless, that his pro-Israel stance may make annexation a actuality.
Netanyahu’s Likud social gathering is a part of a coalition authorities — fashioned to maintain him in energy —
with radical right-wing nationalist events together with the Spiritual Zionist Occasion. Netanyahu dedicated to pursuing West Financial institution annexation in Likud’s coalition settlement with the Spiritual Zionist Occasion.
“The individuals of Israel have a pure proper to the Land of Israel,” the settlement says. “In gentle of the idea within the aforementioned proper, the Prime Minister will lead the formulation and promotion of a coverage throughout the framework of which sovereignty might be utilized within the West Financial institution, whereas selecting the timing and contemplating all nationwide and worldwide pursuits of the state of Israel.”
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister and a member of the Spiritual Zionist Occasion, stated in 2024 that he believed Israel may work with the then-incoming Trump administration to advertise annexation of the West Financial institution.
