Palestinian officials reject Israel’s online West Bank land registry plan

Occupied East Jerusalem, Palestine - Palestinian officials have condemned Israel’s move to digitise property registration in the occupied West Bank, with the Palestinian Land Authority calling it a “dangerous colonial occupation step that represents a direct assault on the historical and legal rights of the Palestinian people to their land and property”.

The Palestinian Jerusalem Governorate and the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission have also warned Palestinians in the West Bank not to deal with Israeli “entities, committees, platforms, or procedures” connected to land and property matters.

Israel reportedly introduced an online system called the “Land Registry and Settlement of Rights” this week, with plans to use it to “update” ownership records for property in the occupied West Bank.

The Jerusalem Governorate and the CRRC urged the international community, the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and international legal and human rights bodies to act quickly against the Israeli measures. They called for pressure to stop the procedures and for Israel to be held responsible for ongoing violations affecting Palestinians, their land, and their resources.

Palestinian officials say the registry forms part of a wider annexation drive. In May 2025, Israel’s Security Cabinet began a broader land settlement process across the West Bank. According to the Jerusalem Governorate, the stated goal was to complete the legal and administrative annexation of occupied land by placing it under full Israeli registration and authority.

In July 2025, Israel’s parliament passed a non-binding measure supporting annexation of the occupied West Bank. The proposal had first been introduced in 2024 by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in an illegal Israeli settlement.

On February 15, 2026, Israel began the permanent acquisition and registration of about 58 percent of Area C, the section of the West Bank where Israel maintains full control. Under that decision, Palestinian land registration in the Israeli “Tabu” registry began for the first time since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967.

Israel Hayom reported in February that the process would create a final registration step that would be hard to contest in Israeli courts. As the settlement process moves ahead, the Israeli Land Registry unit will oversee the regulation and recording of ownership in Area C, while also being able to approve sales permits and collect fees.

Israel plans to complete land settlement for 15 percent of the West Bank by the end of 2030. About 700,000 Israeli settlers already live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with illegal settlement growth expanding under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Rights groups say settlement approvals and settler attacks on Palestinian communities have increased since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.