By Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Israel’s cabinet on Sunday approved further measures to tighten Israel’s control over the occupied West Bank and make it easier for settlers to buy land, a move Palestinians called a “de-facto annexation”.
The West Bank is among the territories that Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Much of it is under Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self-rule in some areas run by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing an election later this year, deems the establishment of any Palestinian state a security threat.
His ruling coalition, which has a large voter base in the settlements, includes many members who want Israel to annex the West Bank, land captured in the 1967 Middle East war to which Israel cites biblical and historical ties.
Ministers voted in favour of beginning a process of land registration for the first time since 1967, a week after approving another series of measures in the West Bank that drew international condemnation.
“We are continuing the revolution of settlement and strengthening our hold across all parts of our land,” said far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said land registration was a vital security measure while the cabinet said in a statement it was an “appropriate response to illegal land registration processes promoted by the Palestinian Authority.”
The foreign ministry said the measure would promote transparency and help resolve land disputes.
The Palestinian presidency condemned the step, saying it constitutes “a de-facto annexation of occupied Palestinian territory and a declaration of the commencement of annexation plans aimed at entrenching the occupation through illegal settlement activity.”
Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the measure could lead to dispossession of Palestinians from up to half of the West Bank.
U.S. President Donald Trump has ruled out Israeli annexation of the West Bank but his administration has not sought to curb Israel’s accelerated settlement building.
The United Nations’ highest court said in a non-binding advisory opinion in 2024 that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there are illegal and should be ended as soon as possible. Israel disputes this view.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer, Maayan Lubell, Jaidaa Taha, Ahmed Elimam and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Christina Fincher)
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