Published On 5/28/2026
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Last update: 20:35 (Mecca time)
Jerusalem – Palestinian official circles rejected the Israeli occupation authorities’ initiation of new steps to register West Bank lands, and called on all citizens residing in or outside the West Bank not to deal with any Israeli “agencies, committees, platforms or procedures” regarding lands and real estate, except after referring to the competent Palestinian authorities.
Yesterday, the occupation authorities launched an electronic platform to update ownership in the occupied West Bank, according to a statement by the Jerusalem Governorate and the Wall Resistance Committee.
The Land Authority said, in a statement, that the occupation’s launch of the platform amounts to “a dangerous colonial and occupational step that represents a direct assault on the historical and legal rights of the Palestinian people to their land and property.”
It called on citizens to refer to it, before carrying out the work of “land registration, settlement, property inventory, updating real estate data, submitting documents and documents related to land and real estate, or disclosing any information related to ownership.”
It also called on the international community, the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and all international human rights and legal institutions to “assume their urgent responsibilities to stop these illegal measures and hold the occupying state accountable for its continued violations against the Palestinian people, their land, and their capabilities.”
According to the head of the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission (governmental), Moayed Shaaban, in a statement, the Israeli occupation authorities launched the electronic “Land Registry and Rights Settlement” system on Wednesday in the occupied Palestinian territory, which “explicitly reveals the occupation’s transition from traditional field control policies to a digital and administrative colonial architecture aimed at imposing permanent legal facts on the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Shaaban stated that this system, which the occupation called a “hand grenade,” goes beyond being a technical procedure or a mere process of updating land records, but rather represents a central tool for reshaping real estate ownership in the West Bank in accordance with the Israeli colonial vision.
In May 2025, the Israeli Security Ministerial Council decided to begin a comprehensive settlement of land ownership throughout the West Bank, with the aim of “completing the legal and administrative annexation of the occupied territories by fully registering the lands under Israeli authority,” according to the Jerusalem Governorate.
On February 15, 2026, work began to transfer powers to the Israeli Ministry of Justice and the Israeli Survey Authority, and 244 million Israeli shekels (about 84 million US dollars) were allocated to it, and the permanent acquisition and registration of approximately 58% of Area C, meaning about 35% of the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem, began, according to the governorate.
The government decision allows the start of registering Palestinian lands in the Israeli “taboo” for the first time since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, and it is a final procedure that is difficult to appeal before the Israeli courts, according to what the “Israel Hayom” newspaper announced last February.
With the start of land settlement, the Land Registration Unit, affiliated with the Department for Coordination of the Israeli Government’s Activities in the Palestinian Territories Occupied in 1967, will organize and register land ownership in Area C, including issuing sales permits and collecting fees, while preventing the Palestinian Authority from performing any tasks in these areas.
According to the plan, the commander of the Central Command in the Israeli army will be required to complete the settlement of 15% of the West Bank by the end of 2030, with a focus on Area C, which is currently under full Israeli control, while the responsibilities of the Palestinian Authority remain limited in this area.
The land settlement plan comes within a broader Israeli strategy to impose its sovereignty over the West Bank and amend the legal status of the Palestinian territories, according to Palestinian officials.
