The government of Israel reality continues to change Palestine by legislation. This Sunday the Executive led by the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved a proposal for register large areas of the occupied West Bank as “state property” for the first time since the Israeli occupation of the territory began 1967. According to the Israeli public broadcaster Kan, the proposal was presented by the finance ministers, the far-right settler Bezalel Smotrichfrom Justice, Yariv Levin, and from Defense, Israel Katz. The measure includes an allocation of 244.1 million shekels, almost 70 million euros, to carry it out. The Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Qatar have criticized the decision.
“We continue with the settlement revolution to control all our lands“, declared Smotrich. The measure is part of an intensified effort by the Most right-wing government in the history of Israelwhose term ends this coming fall, to change the reality on the ground in the occupied West Bank. Following the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967, the registration of most land of the West Bank. Approximately two-thirds of them are not formally registered. Land registration establishes permanent ownership, and the international law establishes that an occupying power cannot confiscate or colonize land in occupied territories.
Area C under Israeli control
With this new measure, the cabinet authorizes the opening of a land registration process in the West Bank for the first time in almost 60 years, which will come into force in Area C, where Israel has full military and civil control. Now, the Land Registration Authority of the Ministry of Justice will be able to carry out the process, and will receive the financing and the labour necessary for this function. If the land is not currently registered as private property, this procedure can be carried out before this body. “The resolution constitutes a real revolution in Judea and Samaria,” Levin has stated, using the biblical term for the West Bank. “The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel; The Israeli government has committed to deepening its control over all parties [del territorio]and this decision is an expression of that commitment,” he added.
Katz has defended it as an “essential measure of security and governance designed to guarantee the control, enforcement and full freedom of action of the State of Israel in the area,” according to the newspaper The Jerusalem Post. For its part, the Palestinian Presidency has warned of the serious consequences of this decisiondescribing it as a “serious escalation” and a “flagrant violation of international law.” In a statement carried by the Palestinian news agency Wafa, he stressed that the measure amounts to a de facto annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory and marks the beginning of the implementation of annexation plans aimed at consolidating the occupation through the illegal settlement expansion. Last week, the Israeli security cabinet approved measures promoted by Smotrich and Katz to facilitate the illegal confiscation of Palestinian land in these territories.
Criticism of Hamas and Qatar
“The approval of a decision that allows [al gobierno israelí] steal and judaize land in the occupied West Bank, registering them as “state lands”, it is null, worthless and issued by an illegal occupying authority, in an attempt to forcibly impose the colonial reality of settlements and Judaization,” Hamas denounced in a statement, calling it a flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN resolutions. United Nations. Qatar has called it an “extension of illegal plans [de Israel] to depriving the Palestinian people of their rights“. The Qatari Foreign Ministry has stressed “the need for international solidarity to pressure the occupation so that stop the implementation of the decision to avoid its serious repercussions”.
In response, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has indicated that “the Palestinian Authority is currently promoting illegal land registration procedures in Area C, in violation of the law and existing agreements.” However, Israeli human rights groups with a presence on the ground have been denouncing the increasing expansionist policies on the Palestinian territories. “The main consequence of carrying out land settlement procedures in Zone C is the large-scale dispossession of Palestinians up to 83% of Zone C (approximately the 50% of the West Bank) and its registration in the name of the State”, the organization has stated Peace Now in a statement. “The process will require landowners to demonstrate their ownership under conditions that are convenient to them. practically impossible to fulfill; If not, the land will automatically be registered in the name of the State,” he added.
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