How Israel has been seizing Palestinian land for decades
While the Israeli cabinet decision will make it easier to seize Palestinian land in the West Bank, Israel has been taking control of vast swaths of Palestinian territory for decades using a variety of mechanisms in violation of international law:
- The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem explained that since the late 1970s, the main tool Israel has used to seize Palestinian land is to declare it “state land”, based on “a manipulative implementation” of an Ottoman-era law from the 1850s.
- Human Rights Watch also explained that under the Ottoman-era law, the Israeli government “can declare land that was not considered ‘private’ or had not been cultivated in three years as ‘state land'”.
- According to B’Tselem, other ways Israel takes control of Palestinian land include “seizure for military needs, declaration of land as ‘abandoned assets’ and the expropriation of land for public needs”.
- “Each of these are based on a different legal foundation,” the group said. “In addition, Israel has assisted private citizens purchasing land on the ‘free market’.”
An Israeli flag flies near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
No public statement from Trump’s administration
We haven’t had a formal statement from the White House responding to this move by Israel.
We certainly have had statements as recently as October 2025 from the White House when there was movement to try and annex the West Bank. It was a red line for President Trump. He said in no way that would occur and if it did, Israel would lose all US support.
Whether it is this administration or previous US administrations, including President Joe Biden’s, there was opposition to this generally because there is a feeling that not only does it undermine international law, but also this is simply going to undermine peace efforts.
UNRWA warns ‘one of the gravest humanitarian crises in recent history’
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is making an urgent appeal for $1.26bn in funding “to respond to one of the gravest, protracted humanitarian crises in recent history” in occupied Palestinian territory.
UNRWA said Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza coupled with “record levels of violence”, displacement and destruction have left 2.4 million Palestinians across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in need of urgent humanitarian aid.
In the occupied West Bank specifically, more than 32,000 Palestinians remain displaced because of Israeli forces’ operations – the largest displacement crisis since 1967.
