Press Releases
(Bethlehem, 19 February 2026)
The Israeli regime’s recent measures - launching a large-scale land registration process in Area C and facilitating colonizers’ purchases of private land in Areas A and B - mark a decisive shift from de facto control to the formal transfer of Palestinian land ownership to the Israeli regime. They operate on two fronts: transferring private Palestinian property to Israeli colonizers and reclassifying “unregistered” land as Israeli “state” land. This escalation continues a trajectory from the Nakba in 1948, when Palestinians were forcibly displaced and their land was stolen, its ownership formally transferred to the Israeli regime. Today, Israeli cabinet measures further exploit the Oslo Accords framework, which fragmented the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C. By weaponizing that fragmentation, the Israeli regime illegally redefines and transfers Palestinian land ownership, mirroring past mass confiscations. The result is the systematic erosion of Palestinian land and property rights, forced displacement, colony expansion, and entrenched Israeli domination - now institutionalized under the Decisive Plan.
In the aftermath of the Nakba in 1948, the Israeli regime implemented two laws to dispossess and strip Palestinian refugees of their property rights: the Absentees’ Property Law (1950) and the Land Acquisition Law (1953). The Israeli war cabinet’s decision to launch a large-scale land registration process in Area C - the first since 1967 - represents a shift from scattered land acquisitions to systematic transfer of Palestinian land ownership to direct Israeli regime ownership of Palestinian lands, cloaked in legal procedures to give the appearance of legitimacy. Backed by NIS 244 million and dedicated structures, the initiative aims to designate vast tracts of “unregistered” land as “state land.” Through this process, land that Palestinians have cultivated, used, and inhabited for generations is formally recorded under Israeli regime ownership, directly mirroring the function of the Land Acquisition Law. Unlike scattered transactions, this mechanism produces large-scale title conversion, embedding Israeli ownership into official registries and consolidating control over extensive territory.
The other recent Israeli war cabinet decision allowing colonizers to purchase land in Areas A and B transfers Palestinian land ownership directly to Israeli colonizers. By repealing a Jordanian-era restriction on non-Israeli land ownership, the cabinet stated the changes will “allow Jews to purchase land in Judea and Samaria [West Bank] just as they purchase [land] in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.” Combined with the publication of previously classified land registries and the removal of transaction licensing requirements, these measures enable direct, private acquisition of Palestinian land, formally recorded in official registries.
This mechanism mirrors the operation of the Absentees’ Property Law (1950), which did not merely dispossess Palestinians physically but reassigned their property to the Custodian of Absentee Property and subsequently transferred it to the Israeli regime and Zionist-Jewish institutions (such as the Jewish National Fund). In both cases, the decisive act is the legal reassignment of title: Palestinian ownership is extinguished through legislative means and replaced with Israeli ownership, embedding dispossession into formal legal records rather than leaving it as temporary seizure or de facto control.
Both measures operate within the framework the Oslo Accords were designed to produce: fragmenting the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C, consolidating Israeli control, and enabling ‘legal and administrative’ mechanisms for land confiscation and forced displacement. In Areas B and C, zoning and planning laws systematically denied Palestinians access, construction, and development, while maintaining colonizer privileges and expansion. The recent measures escalate this framework, moving beyond restriction to formal transfer of Palestinian land ownership. By opening these areas to market-driven colonizer acquisition, publishing land registries, and transferring Palestinian ownership to the Israeli regime, Oslo’s patchwork facilitates ongoing dispossession.
The Decisive Plan builds on this, and also weaponizing colonizer attacks to seize land and forcibly displace communities. In 2025, 240 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and colonizers, a surge continuing into 2026. In December 2025, 19 colonies - many former “illegal outposts” established by colonizers - were approved, driving nearly a 50% increase since 2022. Between 6–19 January 2026, 55 attacks displaced nearly 700 Palestinians, destroyed farmland, water systems, and community infrastructure, and made continued Palestinian presence unsustainable.
Legislative transfers of land to the Israeli regime and colonizers, colonizer attacks and outpost expansion are all central mechanisms to the implementation and success of the Decisive Plan. Exploiting the Oslo framework, these actions transfer Palestinian land ownership to the regime and colonizers while forcibly displacing communities. The objective is clear: maximize land under Israeli control with the minimum number of Palestinians. States must recognize this as accelerated colonization and impose comprehensive sanctions to halt colonial land theft that began prior to the Nakba and continues today.