Report lays out Israeli methods of land takeover in West Bank

“Some of the methods Israel uses to take over land involve breaking the law,” a new report published by human rights NGO Yesh Din revealed.

The paper is based on Yesh Din’s experience in helping Palestinians pursue legal proceedings against land expropriation.

“Land grab involves more systematic, institutionalised practices Israel uses in order to change the classification and use of West Bank land. This allows Israel to expropriate possession and use of this land from Palestinian residents, in order to serve Israeli interests,” the report said.

As Yesh Din states, analysing these proceedings “provides an overall picture of the practices and manoeuvres the Israeli authorities use in order to increase the reservoir of land meant to serve Israeli interests in the West Bank.”

“Declaring land in the West Bank as public land, or as it is commonly referred to, state land,” is another policy used by Israel, it “requires either legal acrobatics designed to create the appearance of the rule of law, or brazen defiance of the law while law enforcement authorities turn a blind eye.”

In addition, Yesh Din states, various Israeli state bodies have been “mobilised” in order to “find administrative and procedural solutions” to “retroactively authorise structures or communities” built by settlers without official permission – so-called ‘outposts’.

The full report can be read here.