In a legally significant escalation affecting the core of Palestinian existence on their land, Israeli occupation’s security cabinet has approved a series of measures aimed at restructuring the legal and civil landscape in the occupied West Bank. These decisions directly affect private property rights, local Palestinian administrative authority, and the legal status of the occupied territory under international law.
According to Israeli media, the measures, pushed by the defence and finance ministers, include repealing a Jordanian law that previously prohibited the sale of Palestinian land in the West Bank to Israeli settlers, declassifying land registry records, exposing Palestinian landowners to risks and legal vulnerability, transferring urban planning and construction authority in parts of Hebron, including around the Ibrahimi Mosque, from the Palestinian municipality to the Israeli occupation’s Civil Administration, and expanding demolition and confiscation powers to Areas A and B, which are formally under Palestinian civil control.
These measures constitute a direct violation of the right to private property, a fundamental right enshrined in core international legal instruments. The removal of confidentiality from land records exposes Palestinian landowners’ data, rendering them vulnerable to economic and social pressure, and undermining the principle of legal protection for property records, one of the foundations of legal security for individuals.
Furthermore, the abolition of previous regulations and procedures governing property sales creates an unbalanced contractual environment amidst a disparity in power and control, thereby threatening the very essence of freedom of contract and exposing property to indirect coercion.
The extension of Israeli occupation’s enforcement powers into Areas A and B represents a clear breach of interim arrangements that had established Palestinian civil administration in those zones. According to international humanitarian law, the occupying power is prohibited from making permanent alterations to the occupied territory or dismantling local administrative structures, except in cases of urgent and temporary military necessity.
Expanding demolition and confiscation powers under the pretext of building violations or issues related to water and the environment constitutes an administrative use of force that effectively results in dispossession and threatens residential stability for civilians.
Transferring planning and construction authority around the Ibrahimi Mosque and other religious sites to occupation-affiliated planning bodies places sacred and heritage sites under direct military control, contrary to the principles of safeguarding cultural property during conflict. Relevant international rules emphasise the need to preserve the historical and religious character of holy sites, prohibiting unilateral measures that alter their architectural or demographic identity or restrict access and worship.
The expansion of settlements in occupied territories is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, particularly the prohibition on transferring the occupying power’s population into occupied land, a principle firmly embedded in the Geneva Conventions. Any policy aimed at altering the demographic composition or legal status of occupied land constitutes a direct infringement on the right of occupied peoples to self-determination, a fundamental collective right that cannot be waived or diminished by political power dynamics.
Practically, these decisions open the door to intensified property disputes, increased demolition and confiscation orders, and serious threats to the right to adequate housing. They also carry the risk of both direct and indirect forced displacement.
International law obliges the occupying power to protect civilians and ensure their fundamental rights, including the rights to housing, property, and protection from forced transfer or collective punishment.
The Israeli occupation’s cabinet’s decisions reflect a systematic trend toward imposing permanent legal and factual realities in the occupied West Bank through legislative and administrative tools that undermine the core individual and collective rights of Palestinians.
Under international legal standards, such actions are not merely internal policy decisions, but rather constitute clear breaches of the occupying power’s obligations, particularly the duty to protect the territory and its population, to uphold private property rights, and to refrain from unilateral demographic or legal changes within an occupied territory.
