Whose Policy Is This? Democracy and Land in Judea and Samaria

What Is Area C Composed Of?

Area C is a product of the Oslo Accords and later the Wye Agreement 1998. It was initially intended as an interim solution until a permanent agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was reached. These areas, which make up approximately 60% of Judea and Samaria, are under Israeli civil and security control. Israel has the planning, construction, and civilian enforcement powers in Area C, which it is supposed to implement through the Civil Administration.

Jewish construction occupies only 1.5% of the total Area C (57 square kilometers out of 3,641 square kilometers), housing about 440,000 Jews spread across 150 settlements. Arab construction covers approximately 80 square kilometers for about 300,000 people—about 10% of whom are Bedouins. According to the Prime Minister’s Office Research Division, legal construction development is feasible in only about 30% of Area C. A quarter of the land is designated for military use, while the rest is allocated for agriculture and nature reserves.

The Legal and Statutory Landscape

According to estimates by the Prime Minister’s Office Research Division, legal construction planning is feasible in only about 30% of Area C. In practice, less than 10% of Area C is currently covered by master plans (TABA) for Jewish settlements and IDF bases, and the built-up area of Jewish settlements constitutes only about 2.5% of the total land.

However, due to broad jurisdictional definitions, including land seized by military orders or classified as private land, it appears that over 60% of Area C is unavailable for planning for the Palestinian population. At the same time, due to restrictions on planning for Jewish settlement expansion, construction in these areas is also not feasible for the Jewish population. According to researchers from the Prime Minister’s Office, “this effectively renders significant portions of the land in Area C as unusable.”

In civil matters—including planning, land registration, land allocation, civilian enforcement, and more—Israel operates in Area C as if it were subject to military occupation. In other words, the land is perceived as being seized and held solely for wartime purposes and not as part of the state. However, the commitments undertaken by Israel in this framework are considered, from the Israeli perspective, to be voluntary. According to the Israeli definition, Area C consists of “disputed territories” over which Israel holds a superior ownership claim. This means that Israel considers these areas to be part of its territory. Israel’s voluntary extension of the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention, along with consistent Israeli judicial rulings emphasizing property rights even in Area C, has turned the technical-legal discussion of land registration into a politically and internationally explosive issue. This is due to the understanding that sovereignty issues will largely be determined based on the identification of legal land ownership.

Given this situation, every local, professional, or legal decision is fundamentally derived from the political worldview of those involved. No legal decision can be made without considering the question of ownership and the future of the land.

According to findings from the Research Division of the Prime Minister’s Office, only 15% of the total Area C land is officially registered. This is due to significant uncertainty surrounding many land ownership issues in Area C. For example, in many cases, land plot boundaries and the identification of legal owners are unclear.

Land registration in Judea and Samaria is documented in several different cadastral records: the Ottoman, the British Mandate, the Jordanian, the Israeli, and, recently, an unauthorized Palestinian registry. Most of these records are incomplete, some overlap, and others contradict each other. They were based on different legal systems, relied on non-uniform surveys and maps, and often lacked detail and accuracy. Since 1969, two years after Israel liberated Judea and Samaria, Israel has effectively ceased the process of creating an orderly cadastral system.

The level of uncertainty regarding various property issues is further exacerbated by the lack of transparency in land transactions conducted in the area and the difficulty in accessing and reviewing purchase documents. This situation is a direct result of racist laws enacted by various Arab entities aimed at preventing Jews from purchasing land in Judea and Samaria. For example, Jordanian law imposes the death penalty for selling land to non-Arabs. The Palestinian Authority has expanded this law to prohibit land sales in Judea and Samaria even to Israeli Arabs, fearing they might act as intermediaries for Jewish buyers. Additionally, some land parcels are tied up in prolonged legal disputes. Given all these factors, accurately identifying the statutory characteristics of land in Area C remains a significant challenge.

The Division of Land Ownership in Area C

The State of Israel has implemented a system in Area C that categorizes the land into the following types of ownership:

1. State Land: Approximately one-third of the land in Area C (1,200 square kilometers) falls under this category. These lands were initially registered in the land registry as government property during the British Mandate or under the name of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. After 1967, they were declared state-owned. Other lands (mainly survey lands) have also been declared state property by Israel.
2. Survey Lands: These lands, covering about 710 square kilometers, or roughly 20% of the total land in Area C, are lands where ownership rights are uncertain. Therefore, the state must conduct survey procedures to determine whether state lands can be declared. According to Israel’s legal position, the Custodian of Government Property claims ownership over these survey lands. However, this process has not yet been completed. Approximately 100 square kilometers have been surveyed but not officially designated state land.
3. Land Seized for Military Purposes: The military commander has seized approximately 1,000 square kilometers of private land for urgent and necessary military needs. This seizure does not alter the land’s ownership but temporarily expropriates the right to use it until the essential and urgent security need ceases.
4. Privately Owned Land (Arab or Jewish): The extent of privately owned land remains a subject of political and legal dispute, as in most cases, its registration in the land registry (tabu) has not been completed. In some cases, ownership has been recognized through rulings by Israeli courts. Regarding Jewish ownership, it is estimated to constitute about 2-3% of Area C, amounting to approximately 123 square kilometers that were purchased before the establishment of the State of Israel. As for Arab ownership, there is no precise data. However, according to the Research Division of the Prime Minister’s Office, most of the land classified under this category consists of vacant areas, with a significant portion having never been cultivated for agricultural use. Only a tiny fraction of these lands were likely under private ownership.