On 15 February 2026, the Israeli government issued an administrative decision mandating the registration of vast areas of land in the West Bank as “state land,” a move described by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as a “settlement revolution.” The decision authorizes the Israeli Ministry of Justice to register and adjudicate property rights and to allocate land to settlers, the military, and government agencies, marking a qualitative shift from military administration toward the exercise of de facto sovereignty over occupied Palestine.
Towards the implementation of the decision, Israel has allocated an initial budget of NIS 244 million (approximately USD 79 million) for land registration activities between 2026 and 2030 in Area C of the West Bank, over which Israel exercises full military and civilian control. It also establishes 35 new positions across various ministries and government agencies to carry out registration procedures.
Adopted by the Israeli Cabinet, the decision is a purely administrative measure that grants the government broad powers to act without the need for new legislation from the Knesset. It applies to land that has remained unregistered or undeveloped since 1967, with a particular focus on absentee property whose owners were expelled or fled the West Bank after the Nakba in 1948 or the 1967 war. The scope of the decision further extends into Areas A and B, which are, under the Oslo framework, administratively under the Palestinian Authority. Reports indicate that Hebron will serve as a pilot case for implementation, accompanied by the dismantling of prior arrangements such as the 1997 Hebron Protocol and the revocation of Palestinian municipal authorities’ powers in strategic areas.
While Israel has indeed, for decades, circumvented the law and multiple legal frameworks to seize absentee property through force or administrative measures, the new decision provides a formalized and systematic legal cover for these practices. Land is to be registered in official records under the name of the “State of Israel,” granting the Ministry of Justice full authority to complete registration in an organized manner. The decision also opens land registries to settler organizations, facilitating ‘legal’ control over land and rendering the process administratively “lawful”.
1. Administrative Dimension
The decision constitutes a structured administrative mechanism aimed at reorganizing the settlement enterprise in the West Bank as a key tool of annexation. By mandating the Ministry of Justice to register and adjudicate land, unregistered land and absentee property are converted into official records under the name of the “State of Israel,” reducing the previous reliance on ad hoc and informal land seizures. The decision facilitates the establishment of local administrative bodies for what Israel refers to as settlement ‘blocs’ and integrates them into comprehensive infrastructure and financial systems, fortifying settlements as organized and consolidated clusters. By opening land registries to settler associations, the decision further streamlines the blanket ‘legal’ takeover of Palestinian land as a general rule, and makes almost no room for exceptions, that is, proving the ownership of Palestinians of their lands, which requires very high standards of proof of ownership – impossible to meet.
2. Political Dimension
Politically, the decision seeks to eradicate any effective Palestinian political presence in the West Bank and any prospects of the two-state solution, dismantling the Oslo frameworks in the process. By expanding Israeli authority in Areas A and B, including demolition powers, regulatory oversight, and environmental control, it constrains Palestinian jurisdiction and erodes local governance, particularly in strategic areas such as Hebron. The decision effectively dismantles previous arrangements, including the 1997 Hebron Protocol, and grants Israeli authorities full control over the Ibrahimi Mosque and its surroundings. The strategic political objective is to impose an exclusive Jewish-Israeli settler identity on the land, mirroring the model applied in Jerusalem, and to reshape the on-the-ground reality in a manner that forecloses any potential Palestinian political framework, creating a model capable of replication across the West Bank.
3. Local Legal Dimension
Legally, the decision represents a fundamental rupture with the traditional legal framework protecting Palestinian land rights, which was already fragmented. Ottoman and Jordanian laws and their official land records, long relied upon by Palestinians to establish ownership, are gradually erased and replaced by Israeli law. This transition converts land control into a formalized and systematic process, enabling the legal transfer of land ownership to settlers and entrenching de facto legal annexation.
Legal Framework and Analysis
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been recognized as the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) under international law since 1967 and is governed by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, particularly Articles 47, 49, and 55. These provisions obligate the occupying power to respect the existing legal status of the occupied territory, prohibit the transfer of its civilian population into that territory, and forbid permanent legislative or administrative changes that serve the occupier’s sovereign or settlement interests. The 1907 Hague Regulations further affirm that occupation constitutes a temporary administrative authority that does not amount to sovereignty and does not entitle the occupying power to restructure the property regime or legal system beyond temporary military necessity.
This framework was reinforced by UN Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016), which affirmed the illegality of Israeli settlements in the oPt and declared all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition or legal status of the land, including land confiscation and settlement expansion, null and void and without legal effect. The resolution reaffirmed the peremptory norm prohibiting the acquisition of territory by force.
In its 2024 Advisory Opinion on the legal consequences of Israeli policies and practices in the oPt, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded that Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem no longer qualifies as a temporary occupation, but rather constitutes an unlawful presence due to its permanent and systematic character. The Court found that Israel has violated the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination through settlement policies, land confiscation, and the transformation of the territory’s legal and administrative systems, producing a form of de facto annexation prohibited under international law, even in the absence of a formal declaration.
The Court further emphasized that the application of Israeli law or the transfer of civilian and sovereign powers to institutions of the occupying state, including land administration and property registration, constitutes a grave breach of the law of occupation and undermines the legal protections afforded to the protected population. It also affirmed that all states are under an obligation not to recognize this unlawful situation, not to render aid or assistance in maintaining it, and bring to an end such grave breaches of international law.
In addition to international humanitarian law, the occupied Palestinian territory is subject to international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Multiple international bodies, including the ICJ, have consistently affirmed that an occupying power’s human rights obligations do not cease during occupation. Accordingly, land registration and property transfer policies violate a range of fundamental rights, as parts of systems, including the property right, the right to adequate housing, the right to non-discrimination, and the right to an effective remedy, while also undermining the collective right to self-determination.
Against this backdrop, the Israeli decision to administer the registration of occupied West Bank lands is a deliberate act of sovereignty in occupied territory, i.e, annexation, and such, constitutes a compound violation that combines breaches of the law of occupation with systemic infringements of human rights and the imposition of a new legal reality that redefines land and property without Palestinian consent. By granting the Israeli Ministry of Justice authority to register and adjudicate land and by applying Israeli law in place of the applicable local legal regimes, Israel shifts from temporary administration to the full exercise of sovereign functions. This entrenches de facto legal annexation and transforms law itself into a tool for sustaining Israel’s colonization of occupied Palestine, and entrenching it further without any meaningful accountability.