Israel Allows Land Purchases in West Bank... Condemned by UN

Attempt to Expand Jewish Settlements
UN and Middle Eastern Countries React in Unison

Associated Press Yonhap News

The international community is strongly protesting after Israel announced that it would ease regulations on land transactions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The United Nations (UN) also issued an unusually strong condemnation of the move, which openly aims to expand Jewish settlements. There are growing concerns that this could become another source of conflict in the Middle East at a time when negotiations over Iran's nuclear program are under way.

According to local media outlet The Times of Israel on the 9th (local time), the Israeli cabinet announced in a statement that it would ease the land transaction regulations that had been imposed on the West Bank. As a result, Israeli citizens will now be able to freely purchase and register land in the West Bank. Until now, land purchases in the West Bank had been allowed only in limited cases, and only for Muslim Israelis who had obtained a transaction permit.

The Israeli cabinet also decided to make public the land registry information for West Bank land, which had previously been treated as a state secret. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who issued the statement, said, "We will remove decades-old barriers and abolish discriminatory Jordanian laws to accelerate the development of local settlements," adding, "This will allow Jews to buy land in Judea and Samaria just as they do in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem."

The West Bank is a territory that Israel seized from Jordan during the Six-Day War in 1967. Even after the occupation, Israel applied former Jordanian laws to the West Bank and used them to restrict land transactions by Israelis in the area. With these new measures lifting land transaction restrictions, land purchases by Israelis for the construction of Jewish settlements are expected to increase significantly.

The UN has also strongly objected to the announcement. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in a statement that day, "It must be remembered that such actions, along with Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, not only undermine peace on the ground but are also 'illegal,' as determined by the International Court of Justice (ICJ)." The UN has consistently stressed that all settlements established by Israel in the occupied territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as their associated facilities and infrastructure construction, have no legal validity under international law.

Middle Eastern countries are also protesting. Eight countries in the region - Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkiye - issued a joint statement condemning the move as "null and void as it constitutes an attempt to impose illegal sovereignty over the West Bank." In the statement, they warned, "We caution against the continuation of Israel's expansionist policies and actions that violate international law," and emphasized that "the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people must be guaranteed on the basis of a two-state solution."