Israel’s new trick to circumvent the Geneva Conventions and steal West Bank land

‘The new law states that all Palestinian land is State Land unless Palestinian owners can prove otherwise.’ Israel has always used legislation as a shield for colonial ends.

Israel has always been clear about its intentions: to take control of all of historic Palestine, a goal it is pursuing through different means, all converging towards the same goal. After October 7, 2023, this process – which had advanced at a varying pace over the decades depending on internal and international conditions – accelerated in a way seen only twice before in its history: in 1948 and 1967.

Today, as in the past, this is taking place under the indifferent or complicit gaze of the international community. In Gaza, it has taken the name of the “Board of Peace,” a new colonial mandate that Italy is rushing to join with its usual opportunism. In the West Bank, it is called annexation, implemented through unprecedented measures that are either the object of muted criticism or deliberately ignored by Western chancelleries, which are hiding behind an idea that is reassuring precisely because it is unattainable: the two-state solution.

On Sunday, the Israeli government – with an initial budget of $79 million – launched the process of land registration in the West Bank, with the declared goal of confiscating at least 15% of Area C (the 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli civil and military control since the Oslo Accords) by 2030: declaring it “State Land,” thus amenable to be used for colonial expansion.

The issue might appear technical, but it is deeply political.........

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