ISLAMABAD: The recent Israeli security cabinet’s decision to allow Jewish citizens to purchase land directly in the West Bank has sparked widespread international condemnation.
The cabinet voted Monday to allow Jewish Israelis to buy West Bank land directly and to extend greater Israeli control over areas where the Palestinian Authority exercises power, reported AFP.
The move comes ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest visit to see Trump in Washington on Wednesday, when he is expected to discuss pressure on arch-enemy Iran.
The Palestinian Authority strongly condemned the Israeli cabinet’s decision.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the measures constitute a “serious escalation” and accused Israel of attempting to impose “de facto annexation” through administrative and legal changes.
The ministry said Israel “has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory” and called on the UN Security Council and international community to intervene.
President Mahmoud Abbas’s office described the steps as a violation of signed agreements and international law, warning that they would further weaken Palestinian self-governance and prospects for an independent state. Palestinian officials have urged international legal and diplomatic action to halt implementation.
International reaction
Eight Muslim-majority countries, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, and the UAE, issued a joint statement warning the measures would "fuel violence and conflict in the region."
Jordan's foreign ministry condemned the decision as aimed at "imposing illegal Israeli sovereignty" and entrenching settlements.
The United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and most countries consider Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law.
The European Union called the Israeli decision "another step in the wrong direction," while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "gravely concerned."
"If these decisions are implemented, they will undoubtedly accelerate the dispossession of Palestinians and their forcible transfer, and lead to the creation of more illegal Israeli settlements," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump also opposes the annexation of the West Bank and wants stability, a US official said.
Israel's main ally, however, held off from directly criticizing the Israeli government's moves, which sparked a chorus of international condemnation.
"As the president has clearly stated, he does not support Israel annexing the West Bank," a Trump administration official said late Monday.
"A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration's goal to achieve peace," the official said in response to a question on the Israeli actions.
Land purchase prohibitions lifted for Jewish citizens
The measures, announced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz, include canceling decades-old prohibitions on land sales to Jewish citizens in the West Bank, declassifying land registry records to facilitate land acquisition, and expanding Israeli enforcement powers into Areas A and B — zones that under the Oslo Accords fall under Palestinian Authority administration.
Planning authority shifts in Hebron
In Hebron, the government confirmed a shift in planning authority affecting Jewish settlements and religious sites.
“In Hebron, we decided to transfer building licensing authority in the Jewish settlement and holy sites from Palestinian mechanisms to the planning institutions of the Civil Administration, in order to enable more efficient and stable planning. At the same time, we strengthened the powers of the Hebron administration to directly address the municipal needs of the residents,” Smotrich said in a post on X.
The government would "continue to bury the idea of a Palestinian state," he added.
According to Israeli media outlets Ynet and Haaretz, the decisions transfer construction planning authority at sensitive sites in Hebron, including the Ibrahimi Mosque compound, to Israeli authorities.
Moataz Abu Sneina, director of Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque, told Al Jazeera the developments represent "the most serious" changes since 1967, reflecting Israel's intention to strengthen control over the holy site.
'There will be no Palestinian state'
Israel's energy minister, Eli Cohen, said on Tuesday that the government's measures to strengthen Israeli control in the occupied West Bank amount to implementing "de facto sovereignty.”
Cohen told the Israeli army radio that these steps “effectively establish a reality on the ground that there will be no Palestinian state.”
Al Jazeera, citing Palestinian officials and analysts, reported that many Palestinians view the new rules as entrenching permanent Israeli control on the ground, even in the absence of formal annexation.
“It will affect the living and the dead,” said Bassam Abu Srour, who lives in Bethlehem’s Aida refugee camp. “Annexing the area would prevent burials and visits to the Islamic cemetery. This is extremely serious and completely unacceptable to us,” Al Jazeera reported.
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