'Continuing settler violence and settler activities in the West Bank are in direct violation of international law,' says legal expert Gerhard Kemp
ISTANBUL
Israel’s latest moves to ease the sale of Palestinian land to Israeli settlers and expand its authority in the occupied West Bank amount to serious violations of international law and binding agreements, legal experts and rights groups said.
On Sunday, the Israeli Security Cabinet approved a series of 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 said that Israel has been violating international law since 1967.
"Israel is again now violating not just the international law but agreements such as the Oslo Accords."
He said that this agreement was signed not just between Israel and Palestine, but was an issue related to the international community, along with the US, with everybody recognizing the fact that some areas in the West Bank should be in the hands of the Palestinians.
According to Mizrachi, Israel's violation of an international agreement that was signed by itself is very "concerning."
What steps is Israel taking?
According to Peace Now, the new measures effectively open the occupied West Bank as a “real estate market” for settlers, creating broad potential for abuse, forgery and corruption.
Under the 1995 Oslo II Accord, Area A is under full Palestinian civil and security control, Area B is under Palestinian civil control with Israeli security control, and Area C remains under full Israeli control, which accounts for about 60% of the West Bank.
Peace Now on its website says that the latest plans include allowing direct land purchases to settlers, where Israel has repealed a Jordanian-era law that had permitted only Palestinian residents or locally registered companies to purchase land.
This change allows Israeli settlers to buy land directly from Palestinians without registering a local company.
Other measures include cancelling transaction permit requirements, where the requirement for a transaction permit, which was designed to prevent fraud and curb settler land acquisitions that contradict official policy, has been scrapped.
The Cabinet has also approved opening land registries to public access, where land ownership registries in the West Bank have long been classified to prevent forgery, protect abandoned Palestinian property, safeguard the privacy of sellers, and protect Palestinians’ lives.
The organization said that there have been measures regarding state-led land purchases, where decisions revive a mechanism allowing Israel’s Custodian of Government Property in the West Bank to directly purchase land, further entrenching Israeli control.
The measures also expand Israeli oversight and enforcement into areas classified as Area A and Area B, citing alleged violations related to unlicensed construction, water issues, and damage to archaeological and environmental sites.
The expansion would allow demolitions and seizures of Palestinian property even in areas administered civilly and security-wise by the Palestinian Authority.
Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported that the Cabinet’s decisions included the transfer of planning and construction authority at the Ibrahimi Mosque and its surroundings, as well as other religious sites, from the Hebron municipality to Israel’s civil administration, contrary to arrangements under the 1997 Hebron Protocol between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
How is Israel violating international law?
Israel’s land expansion measures are strongly condemned as a clear violation of international law.
Legal expert Gerhard Kemp said the unlawfulness of Israel's policies and practices in the West Bank and East Jerusalem regarding settlements, confiscation of Palestinian land and discriminatory practices and policies was addressed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Advisory Opinion of 2024.
The ICJ, in its advisory opinion, had said that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements is illegal, saying that Israel must immediately cease all new settlement activity and bring an end to its illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
"It was, for instance, held that continued settlement policies and confiscation of Palestinian lands violate international humanitarian law (Geneva Conventions and Hague Regulations).
"Any policies aimed at making settlements in occupied Palestine even easier, that is, to the detriment of the Palestinians, must be viewed as confirmation that the ICJ was right to label these activities as unlawful," said Kemp, a professor of criminal law at the University of the West of England.
The UN Security Council Resolution 2334 condemns all Israeli measures changing the demographic structure, character, and status of the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, since 1967.
It also declared Israel’s settlement enterprise has “no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace (in Palestine/Israel).”
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
The Hague Conventions on the laws of war also forbid occupying powers from making permanent changes in the occupied territory unless it is a military necessity.
Is Israel challenging Jordanian-era law?
When Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, Jordanian law remained in force, as required under international law governing occupation, according to Peace Now.
One of the Jordanian laws in effect in the West Bank stipulates that only local residents can purchase land in the area.
In 1971, Israel issued a military order allowing Israelis to bypass the restriction by purchasing land through companies registered with Israel’s Civil Administration, subject to transaction permits.
Rights groups say the new measures dismantle these safeguards entirely, allowing illegal settlers to register land directly in their own names with minimal oversight.
Following the measures, Jordan sharply condemned the Cabinet’s decisions, describing them as “illegal,” a “blatant violation of international law,” and an assault on Palestinians’ right to an independent state.
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry accused Israel of attempting to impose unlawful sovereignty and create a new legal and administrative reality in the occupied West Bank.
How is Israel expanding illegal settler activities in West Bank?
Experts view these moves as Israel's expansion of illegal settlement activities in the West Bank.
"Continuing settler violence and settler activities in the West Bank are in direct violation of international law. The fact that this is effectively endorsed and tolerated by the Israeli government is in violation of international law," Kemp told Anadolu.
Kemp argued that policies and practices that amount to the forced displacement of Palestinians in their own land could amount to the crime of apartheid, the domination of one racial group over another, and this could form the basis of a prosecution at the ICC.
Last year was a record-breaking year for illegal Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, with Peace Now stating that plans for 41 new illegal settlements were approved in 2025, making it the most extensive single year of settlement approvals on record.
Altogether, 68 settlements have been approved, legalized or initiated over the past three years.
According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, a government agency, Israel carried out 538 demolitions in 2025, affecting about 1,400 homes and structures—an unprecedented increase compared with previous years.
Peace Now's Mizrachi says that recent plans by Israel are deliberate to exercise control in the territory.
"The West Bank is an occupied territory. It does not belong to Israel. So whenever you make a decision like this, you actually create a lot of change in the status of the West Bank ... There was a clear decision by Israel to make it like this."
