Record Explainer
Is Land in the West Bank Registered to Its Owners?
Order 291 halted West Bank title registration in 1968, the State Comptroller recorded; its 2021 audit found the registers kept in hard copy.
Topic
Land and Planning
Land registration, allocation and planning: the statutes, military orders and commissioned reviews that govern them.
Key Figures
Is Settlement Building Continuing? 1,092 West Bank Dwellings Begun in 2024
Building began on 1,092 dwellings in Israeli West Bank localities in 2024, down from 2,724 in 2022, on Central Bureau of Statistics figures.
Key Figures
What Does Israel Publish on Palestinian Building Permits?
Israel’s published West Bank record is an enforcement count: 13,481 Palestinian-sector cases, 1997 to 2013. Permit counts exist only for Jerusalem.
Record Explainer
What Is the Natural Growth Argument for Settlement Expansion?
The Levy Commission recommended fixing settlement jurisdiction for “future natural growth”. The Bureau recorded 40.9 per 1,000 in Modi’in Illit in 2020.
Key Figures
What Land and Water Has Israel Allocated to Settlements?
About 450,000 dunams of Area C allocated to the Settlement Division, and what Israeli audits publish on settlement water and outpost land status.
Record Explainer
What Is Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank?
Clause 7 of Israel’s 2018 Nation-State Basic Law, the 1979 Beit El and Elon Moreh judgments, and the Oslo II definition of the settlements.
Key Figures
Why Are So Few Building Permits Granted in East Jerusalem?
The State Comptroller recorded 965 permits granted in the east of Jerusalem against 6,003 in the west, 2010 to 2014.
Record Explainer
What Did Israel’s Supreme Court Rule on the Barrier Route?
Israel’s Supreme Court annulled barrier seizure orders over access harm in 2004. What the judgments, Oslo II and the State Comptroller publish.
Record Explainer
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.
Chronology
When Did Israel Begin Taking Palestinian Land? 1950 and 1967
The earliest dated Israeli instruments are the Knesset’s 1950 statutes and Military Order 59 of 1967, with the Elon Moreh judgment of 1979.
Record Explainer
Does Israel Demolish Palestinian Homes, and What Do Israeli Bodies Publish?
Israel’s own record on demolition: Regulation 119 as the Supreme Court quoted it in 2014, the Oslo II planning split, and the outposts courts ordered removed.
Record Explainer
How Does Israel Define State Land in the West Bank?
Military Order 59 of 1967, Oslo II, the 2005 opinion on unauthorized outposts and the 2012 Levy Report, in Israel’s own published words.
Record Explainer
Which Law Applies in the West Bank, and to Whom?
Israel’s Supreme Court, the 1995 Interim Agreement and the 2005 outposts opinion on which law applies in the West Bank, and to whom.
Record Explainer
Which Israeli Instruments Are Used to Take Palestinian Land?
The named Israeli and Ottoman instruments behind land expropriation, with the body that issued each, its date and its own test.
Record Explainer
Is It Legal for Settlers to Take Palestinian Land Under Israeli Law?
What Israel’s own courts, orders and reviews say: State land, private land, 105 outposts and two evacuation judgments.
Record Explainer
How Does the Israeli Government Fund Outposts?
NIS 71,870,000 in ministry spending on unauthorized outposts, 2000 to 2004, and what Israel’s own reviews and audits do and do not publish.
Record Explainer
How Does Israel Use Military Seizure Orders for Land?
About 700 dunams near Rujeib were taken under Order 16/79 in 1979, and the Supreme Court annulled it as to 125 dunams. Israel publishes no running total.
Key Figures
What Does Israel Publish on Complaints Against Settler Violence?
Israel’s State Comptroller audited the Samaria and Judea police district and the closing of criminal files.
Record Explainer
Can Uncultivated Palestinian Farmland Be Expropriated?
Military Order 59 defines government property by ownership on 7 June 1967; the 1953 Land Acquisition Law took 1.2 million dunams in year one.
Record Explainer
What Does Israeli Law Say About the State’s Role in Settlements?
Clause 7, the 1979 State land resolution, Military Order 59 and the 2005 outposts opinion: what Israel’s own bodies published, with dates.
Record Explainer
What Did Israel’s 1950 Absentee Property Law Do to Palestinian Land?
The two 1950 statutes, the absentee definition, the 1.2 million dunams expropriated in 1953, and why no agreed total exists.
Primary Document
The Ottoman Land Code’s Three-Year Rule, and What It Does Not Say
Article 68 of the 1858 Ottoman Land Code makes land left fallow three years subject to the right of Tapu. It does not say the land reverts to the state.
Record Explainer
How Many Unauthorized Outposts Are There in the West Bank?
Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office found 105 in March 2005 and called the figure a floor, with NIS 71,870,000 of ministry funding behind them.