By Lubna Masarwa – Middle East Eye
Israel’s cabinet has for the first time voted to take sole responsibility for land registration in Area C of the occupied West Bank, a decision that has been described as effective Israeli annexation of the majority of Palestinian land.
Under the 1995 Oslo Agreement, the West Bank was divided into three areas, with the Palestinian Authority (PA) exerting limited control of areas A and B, while Israel took full control of Area C. The latter area forms 60 percent of total land in the territory.
On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet agreed that in Area C, Israel would now make all decisions about land, and any Palestinian efforts to recognise land using its own land registry would be legally void.
According to Israeli media, authorities decided to move from a view of “all territory is forbidden – except for what is permitted” to “all territory is permitted – except for what is prohibited”.
Israel Katz, Israel’s defence minister, said the move would lead to the “strengthening, consolidation and expansion” of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Katz and Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli finance minister, have spearheaded the vote.
Under international law, the entire territory covering Areas A, B and C is Palestinian land and all Israeli settlements on them are illegal. The vast majority of Israel’s 700,000 settlers live illegally in Area C.
Ayed Jafry, an activist from Sinjil, a village which mostly falls in Area C, said the decision would have a grave impact on Palestinian property rights.
“They are effectively talking about annexation and control of the West Bank,” he told Middle East Eye. “We will return to dealing directly with the occupation regarding these lands.”
Jafry said that the new policy would open the way for Israeli settler groups to seize land without any oversight or accountability.
Even before this policy came into effect, life was already a living hell for Palestinians in Area C.
“Today, an employee from Sinjil rents a house inside Ramallah city [in Area A] so he doesn’t miss work. In all areas, there are barriers, a wall, and strangulation,” said Jafry.
“Even ambulances are restricted, and the press is also restricted. There is a complete strangulation of everything Palestinian.”
‘Messianic vision’
Under the Oslo Accords, it was agreed that all three areas were to come under full Palestinian control by 2000.
That did not occur, and since then, Israel has increasingly displaced Palestinians and moved Israeli settlers into occupied lands. For years, Israeli authorities and settler groups have treated Area C as being under Israel’s permanent control.
Israeli forces have uprooted tens of thousands of trees planted by Palestinians, confiscated Palestinian construction equipment and demolished homes and structures.
Jafry used the example of al-Mughayyir, a village mostly in Area C. While the village is spread across about 40,000 dunams (9,888 acres) of land, its Palestinian residents only own 1,200 dunams.
‘This is a dangerous step towards realising the messianic vision of the annexationist government’
– Yesh Din, Israeli NGO
In Deir Dibwan, meanwhile, just 2,000 dunams of 70,000 are Palestinian owned.
“The occupation classified the rest of the lands as C,” said Jafry.
Yesh Din, an Israeli organisation that campaigns for human rights in occupied Palestine, told MEE that the cabinet decision was “a dangerous step towards realising the messianic vision of the annexationist government and constitutes a blatant violation of international law”.
Under international humanitarian law, an occupying power cannot make permanent changes to occupied territory, including annexation, building settlements and permanent structures, or confiscating property.
Israel has therefore breached international law in the West Bank for decades.
“This decision paves the way for the ‘regularisation’ of ownership over hundreds of thousands of dunams of land in the West Bank,” a spokesperson for Yesh Din said.
“Its implementation is expected to harm the human rights of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who may lose their rights to their land.”
Palestinians ‘left to fight alone’
In response to Israel’s de-facto annexation of Area C, the PA in 2009 formulated the Fayyad Plan.
Named after former prime minister Salam Fayyad, it was aimed at strengthening institutions in an attempt to build a Palestinian state from the bottom up.
As part of that, efforts were made to register Palestinian ownership of land in Area C.
The PA established a dedicated ministry, whose job included overseeing land mapping, documentation and handling land registrations in Area C. Some of the documents date to the era of Ottoman rule in Palestine, as well as Jordan’s control over the West Bank between 1948 and 1967.
‘The Palestinian people are left alone to confront the tyranny of colonialism and organised state terrorism’
– Ayed Jafry, Palestinian activist
Under the new Israeli policy, such documents will no longer be allowed to be used in Israeli legal and administrative processes.
The directive goes further: PA staff will be blocked from accessing Area C, while the European Union and other international actors who have supported the construction of Palestinian schools and buildings in Area C will be blocked from providing any further aid or assistance.
“Major international institutions, the UN, the EU, Palestinian ministries and ministers come to take pictures and express sympathy,” said Jafry.
“But on the ground, the Palestinian people are left alone to confront the tyranny of colonialism and organised state terrorism. No one stands with them.”
In spite of the lack of international help, Jafry said local activists and municipalities would come together to discuss the new decision.
“We will work to launch a popular movement against the issue,” he said.