Israel’s security cabinet has approved a raft of measures to accelerate settlement development in the West Bank, including the repeal of a law preventing sales of land in the territory to non-Muslims.
The move, pushed by Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, is intended to “allow Jews to purchase land in [the West Bank] just as they purchase [land] in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem,” according to the pair’s joint statement.
Under the plan, the land registry in the West Bank, which until now has been classified, will be open to the public, meaning that potential buyers in Israel will be able to approach landowners with a view to purchasing real estate.
The cabinet also overturned a decades-old legal provision, left over from Jordanian control of the territory, restricting land sales to Muslim buyers only.
As such, Israeli Jews, Christians, and others will be able to acquire property in the West Bank just as they would in Israel.
The plan also scraps the requirement to obtain a transaction license from the land registry office to sell West Bank land.
Instead, sellers will only be required to meet “professional threshold conditions”, which ministers say will remove “a major obstacle in the local real estate market”.
The changes “are intended to remove decades-old barriers, repeal discriminatory Jordanian legislation, and enable accelerated development of settlement on the ground,” said Smotrich and Katz.
Away from land acquisitions, the scheme expands Israeli administrative powers within Areas A and B, as defined under the Oslo Accords.
While Area C, which includes most of the settlements, is fully administered by Israel, Area A is under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Area B is jointly administered by the two sides, with Israel taking responsibility for security.
Israel will now have expanded enforcement powers over water violations and environmental hazards that could impact other areas of the territory and damage to archaeological sites.
Significantly, it will also take over authority for building permits in Hebron, including the Tomb of the Patriarchs, from the Hebron municipality, which reports to the PA.
Changes to construction in Hebron will now only require approval from Israeli defence officials, rather than both the municipal authority and the Israeli Defence Ministry’s Civil Administration.
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