How Do Israeli Settlers Acquire Palestinian Land?
Israel’s own record: 26 of 105 outposts on State land, a Custodian under Military Order 59, and what the State Comptroller audited.
26 of 105 unauthorized outposts stood on State land, the Prime Minister’s Office of Israel published in its March 2005 summary of the Sason opinion, with 15 on registered private Palestinian property, 7 on survey lands and 39 on mixed lands. The route that opinion sets out for lawful Israeli building runs through the state rather than through a sale, and it turns on a 1979 government resolution, taken after the High Court of Justice ruled in the Elon Moreh case, that settlements be established only on State land. Under Military Order 59, signed by the Commander of IDF Forces in the West Bank Area on 31 July 1967, property belonging to the Jordanian government on 7 June 1967 passes to a Custodian who takes possession of it and administers it. These are the Israeli government’s own counts of its own bodies, drawn from Civil Administration data, and the opinion states that the 105 “probably does not reflect the true number of outposts in the area.”
| Figure | What it counts | Who published it | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| 105 | Unauthorized outposts known to the author, stated as not the true number | Prime Minister’s Office of Israel | March 2005 |
| 26 | Of those outposts, the number on State land | Prime Minister’s Office of Israel | March 2005 |
| 15 | Of those outposts, the number on private Palestinian property | Prime Minister’s Office of Israel | March 2005 |
| NIS 71,870,000 | Outlay on unauthorized outposts, the figure stated by the Ministry of Construction and Housing | Prime Minister’s Office of Israel | 2000 to 2004 |
| About 450,000 dunams | Area C land allocated by the Custodian to the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization under permit agreements | State Comptroller of Israel | Audit to December 2015 |
| 120 | Israeli localities in Area C, 87 of them established by the Settlement Division, holding about 100,000 residents | State Comptroller of Israel | Audit to December 2015 |
| About 125 dunams | Petitioners’ registered plots inside Order of Possession 16/79, on which the order was held invalid | Supreme Court of Israel | 22 October 1979 |
| 115 | Families evacuated from four Israeli settlement points after High Court rulings | State Comptroller of Israel | 2012 to 2022 |
The 2005 opinion records allocation of State land, not purchase
The Prime Minister’s Office of Israel published the opinion’s four land categories for the outposts it examined, and it counts an outpost as unauthorized where there was no government decision to establish it and no authorized political echelon approved it. The opinion’s definition also excludes construction adjoining a recognised settlement, counting only a point at least a few hundred metres distant from one, so the 105 is a floor on unauthorized building rather than a total. What an allottee holds under Military Order 59 is a right granted by the Custodian, who under Article 2 “may take possession of government property and take any step he considers necessary for that purpose.”
The Levy Report recommended enabling registration of Israeli purchases
The Commission to Examine the Status of Building in Judea and Samaria, appointed by the Prime Minister in February 2012, published its report on 21 June 2012 and stated as its own legal position that “the establishment of settlements cannot in and of itself be considered to be illegal.” On settlements built without a government decision the report states that “the status of these settlements can be legalized without requiring a further decision by the government or any of its ministers,” a sentence that sits in the report body in the English text published by Regavim; the Conclusions section, which the same document states is from the original Israeli government translation, reaches the result procedurally without it. Order 59 already provided, in Article 5, that a transaction made in good faith between the Custodian and another person stands even if the property is later shown not to have been government property, a clause carried in this site’s record on uncultivated farmland.
The commission’s recommended mechanism, in its own words:
- Determine each settlement’s municipal jurisdiction by order, “taking into due consideration future natural growth”
- Remove “the administrative barriers imposed on the planning and zoning authorities … without any further need for additional approval by the political level”
- Pending completion, “the state is advised to refrain from carrying out demolition orders”
The report closes by stating that “Should the government decide to adopt our recommendations, it will be necessary to implement those principles in detail.”
Which Israeli body checks that allocated land is State land?
The State Comptroller of Israel audited the Civil Administration twice on this machinery, in Annual Report 66b of 2016 and Annual Report 70C covering an audit of September 2018 to June 2019, and reported on the staff officers, the Supervision Unit and the land registers. Its findings on the registers are the state’s own account of its own record-keeping.
| Finding | What it counts | Period |
|---|---|---|
| 25 staff officers | Professional representatives of the ministries in the Civil Administration | Audit to June 2019 |
| 314 employees | Civil Administration staff, 202 Israeli civil servants and 112 Palestinian employees | 2019 |
| 60% | Share of scanned real-estate transaction files scanned without the certification of transfer of rights | Audit to June 2019 |
| About 4 years | Time spent computerising the land registers, not completed; registration is by hard-copy register | Audit to June 2019 |
| 8 years | Period the Civil Administration internal auditor position stood unfilled | Audit to June 2019 |
| 57 employees, about NIS 17.5 million | Central Supervision Unit staffing and budget | 2014 |
Source: State Comptroller of Israel, Annual Report 70C and Annual Report 66b.
No Israeli body publishes a dunam total allocated to settlements
The State Comptroller of Israel published one area figure in Annual Report 66b, about 450,000 dunams in Area C allocated by the Custodian to the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization under permit agreements. That is land allocated under permit, and it is neither land declared State land nor land built on. No cumulative area transferred to settlers, and no count of purchases by Israelis registered in the area, appears in the Israeli publications used here. What these bodies publish instead are counts of outposts, enforcement cases, spending and evacuations.
| Figure published | What it counts | Body |
|---|---|---|
| 13,481 and 6,605 cases | Illegal construction located by the Central Supervision Unit in the Palestinian sector and the Israeli sector, 1997 to 2013, the unit’s own count of its own detections | State Comptroller of Israel |
| 3,813 (28%) and 1,807 (27%) | Of those located cases, the ones demolished, each share of its own sector total | State Comptroller of Israel |
| 118 fuel stations | Stations in Area C, of which 17 lawfully regulated, 25 in regularisation proceedings and 76 carrying illegal-construction files | State Comptroller of Israel |
| 115 families | Evacuated from Migron, Amona, Ofra and Netiv HaAvot after High Court rulings | State Comptroller of Israel |
Which figures on this page may not be added together?
The Supreme Court of Israel held Order of Possession 16/79 invalid on 22 October 1979 as to the petitioners’ registered plots, about 125 dunams inside an order covering about 700 dunams; it is one requisition, not a cumulative area. The State Comptroller of Israel counts families and sites in its 2023 evacuation audit, 50 from Migron and 42 from Amona among them, and those per-locality counts total 107 rather than the 115 it reports, so the balance may not be derived by subtraction. The Supervision Unit’s 13,481 and 6,605 are detections in two sectors of different size, each with its own denominator, and are never one series. The 0.6% of Area C recorded as covered by Palestinian master plans, about 20,845 dunams, is printed as an approximation and may not be divided out to produce an Area C total. Land taken inside Israel under the 1950 Absentee Property Law covers a different territory and period and does not join these figures.
Questions readers ask
Who holds government property in the West Bank?
The Commander of IDF Forces in the West Bank Area issued Military Order 59 on 31 July 1967, effective 7 July 1967, placing property that belonged to the Jordanian government on 7 June 1967 under a Custodian appointed by the military commander.
How many unauthorized outposts did Israel’s 2005 review count?
The Prime Minister’s Office of Israel published 105 outposts known to the author in March 2005.
Did that review call 105 a total?
The Prime Minister’s Office of Israel published the count with the author’s statement that it “probably does not reflect the true number of outposts in the area.”
How many outposts stood on private Palestinian land?
The Prime Minister’s Office of Israel recorded 15 on private Palestinian property, plus 39 on mixed lands that are part State, part survey and part Palestinian-owned.
What did the Ministry of Construction and Housing spend on outposts?
The Prime Minister’s Office of Israel published NIS 71,870,000 for 2000 to 2004, expressly as the figure stated by that ministry, which is the spending body’s own count.
How much Area C land went to the Settlement Division?
The State Comptroller of Israel reported about 450,000 dunams allocated under permit agreements, and 120 Israeli localities in Area C, 87 of them established by the Settlement Division, holding about 100,000 residents.
Are West Bank land registers computerised?
The State Comptroller of Israel reported that real estate in the area is registered in hard-copy registers with no computerised system, after about four years of computerisation that was not completed.
Who staffs the Civil Administration?
The State Comptroller of Israel recorded 314 employees in 2019, of whom 202 were Israeli civil servants and 112 Palestinian employees, alongside 25 staff officers representing the ministries.
How many families were moved after court rulings?
The State Comptroller of Israel counted 115 families evacuated from four settlement points between 2012 and 2022, including 50 from Migron and 42 from Amona.
What did the Supreme Court decide about requisition for a settlement?
The Supreme Court of Israel held on 22 October 1979 that the order of possession was invalid as to the petitioners’ registered lands, and stated that requisition for a civilian settlement is potentially justified where military needs in practice brought about the decision.
Does Israel publish a count of land bought from Palestinians?
No count of purchases by Israelis registered in the area appears in these publications. The Commission to Examine the Status of Building in Judea and Samaria addressed transactions and settlement-of-title proceedings as matters it recommended changing.
How many illegal-construction cases did the Civil Administration locate?
The State Comptroller of Israel published the Supervision Unit’s own counts of 13,481 cases located in the Palestinian sector and 6,605 in the Israeli sector between 1997 and 2013, of which 3,813 and 1,807 were demolished.
Sources
- Commander of IDF Forces in the West Bank Area, 1967. Military Order 59, Order Concerning Government Property. Collection of Proclamations, Orders and Appointments, booklet 5, p. 162. Official or primary record.
- Commission to Examine the Status of Building in Judea and Samaria, 2012. Report on the Legal Status of Building in Judea and Samaria. Signed 21 June 2012. Official or primary record.
- Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel, 2016. Judea and Samaria Area: Activity of the Supervision and Enforcement Unit and Aspects of Land Registration. Annual Report 66b. Official or primary record.
- Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel, 2021. Staff Officers in the Civil Administration in the Judea and Samaria Region. Annual Report 70C. Official or primary record.
- Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel, 2023. Evacuation of Israeli Settlement Points in the Judea and Samaria Area and Treatment of the Evacuees. Official or primary record.
- Prime Minister’s Office of Israel, 2005. Summary of the Opinion Concerning Unauthorized Outposts. Published 10 March 2005. Official or primary record.
- Supreme Court of Israel, 1979. HCJ 390/79 Dweikat v. Government of Israel. Judgment of 22 October 1979. Official or primary record.
