Israel declares large swath of land near illegal West Outpost as ‘state land’

The Civil Administration, a department of the Defense Ministry, has declared 456 dunams (112 acres) of land adjacent to the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad in the northern West Bank to be “state land,” meaning it will be available for the development of settlements and settlement infrastructure, according to a Civil Administration document.

The land was previously part of the administrative lands of the nearby Palestinian villages of Jit, Tell and Fara’ata, although it is not privately owned. Anyone who claims the land is under their private ownership can appeal the decision within 45 days of the declaration, which was approved on September 1.

Although the land declared to be state land is likely not privately owned, the borders of the new state land area are tortuously drawn and include islands of land within the state land zone that may be privately owned by Palestinians.

Access to this land will be impossible if residential or commercial settlement developments are built on the state land, the left-wing Peace Now organization, which campaigns against the settlement movement, said.

The government in 2018 declared its intention to legalize Havat Gilad, but due to claims by local Palestinians that they own land on which the outpost is built, efforts to legalize it have run aground.

Residents of the outpost have tried to claim the land was legally purchased but have been unable to prove this, apart from for one plot out of dozens on which the outpost lies, according to Peace Now.

The large majority of the state land declared by the Civil Administration lies around a kilometer south of Havat Gilad. Peace Now argues that the land declaration will therefore be used to expand the outpost, without the original dwellings being demolished.

The current government has declared unprecedented amounts of West Bank land to be state land. Since it took office at the end of 2022, some 26,000 dunams (6,424 acres) of West Bank land have been declared state land in less than three years, half the total since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.

Some 99.8% of state land in the West Bank designated for development has been allocated to settlements and settlement enterprises, and just 0.2% to Palestinians, Peace Now says.