Israel Registers Occupied West Bank Territory as Its Own

JAKARTA - The Israeli government has approved a proposal to register most of the occupied West Bank as its "property".

This action will be the first since Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967.

The proposal was submitted by Israel's right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's Justice Minister Yariv Levin, and Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz.

"We continue the settlement revolution to control all our land," Smotrich said, according to Israeli media reports, Kan, quoted by Al Jazeera, Sunday, February 15.

Most of the Palestinian territories are not officially registered because the process is long and complicated, and was stopped by Israel in 1967.

Land registration is known to establish permanent ownership. International law states that the power of occupation - as Israel does in the West Bank of the Palestinian territory - cannot confiscate or annex occupied land.

Katz added that the effort to register most of the Palestinian-owned West Bank as "an important security and governance measure designed to ensure control, law enforcement, and full freedom of action for the State of Israel in the region," as reported by the newspaper The Jerusalem Post.