Experts: Israel Violating International Law with Expanded West Bank Powers

West Bank, MINA – Israel’s recent moves to facilitate the sale of Palestinian land to Israeli settlers and expand its authority in the occupied West Bank are serious violations of international law and binding agreements, according to legal experts and rights groups.

On Sunday, the Israeli Security Cabinet approved decisions allowing Israelis to purchase land in the occupied territory, repealing Jordanian-era laws that have governed land ownership since 1967, and extending Israeli authority into areas under Palestinian civil control.

Yonatan Mizrachi of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch Team stated, “Israel is again now violating not just international law but agreements such as the Oslo Accords,” emphasizing that these agreements involved the international community, including the US.

Peace Now warns that the new measures effectively open the West Bank as a real estate market for settlers, raising risks of abuse, forgery, and corruption.

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The changes include allowing direct land purchases by settlers, scrapping transaction permit requirements, opening land registries to public access, and expanding Israeli oversight into Areas A and B, zones designated under the Oslo Accords for Palestinian civil control.

The measures also transfer planning authority at the Ibrahimi Mosque and other religious sites in Hebron from the Palestinian municipality to Israel’s civil administration, contravening the 1997 Hebron Protocol.

Legal expert Gerhard Kemp noted that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its 2024 advisory opinion ruled Israel’s occupation and settlement activities illegal, stating Israel must cease all new settlement activity.

UN Security Council Resolution 2334 condemns Israeli measures altering the demographic structure of occupied Palestinian territories, while Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into occupied territory.[]

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Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)