From Court freezes key step in government’s controversial West Bank land registration process
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The Jerusalem District Court issues a temporary order freezing the tender process for the government’s controversial West Bank land registration process, which critics have described as “de facto annexation” of the territory.
The court orders the Justice Ministry, Defense Ministry and other agencies to respond to the order by next Thursday.
“The renewal of the land registration process in the West Bank constitutes a clear act of annexation, and the tender for administering it was carried out without authority and unlawfully,” say Yesh Din, Bimkom, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the organizations that petitioned the court against the process.
“The tender, and the process as a whole, must be voided, since its implementation and execution will lead to widespread harm to the human rights of Palestinians and a flagrant violation of international law.”
In February, the cabinet approved the renewal of the land registration process in the West Bank that was frozen in 1968 in order to enable the registration of broad swaths of land as state land that could then be used for Israeli development.
The Justice Ministry then issued a tender for private contractors to carry out the land registration process, and the tender was recently awarded.
The three Israeli civil rights organizations filed legal petitions against the renewal of the land registration process, arguing that the land registration process violates international law since Israel holds the West Bank under what is known as a belligerent occupation, in which actions permanently altering the status of the territory are prohibited.
The ownership of some two-thirds of all West Bank land has never been formally registered, and civil rights groups have expressed concern that since the declared goal of the land registration process is to advance settlement development, it would likely be extremely hard for Palestinians in Area C to effectively register their private property.
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