The Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday issued a temporary order freezing the tender process for the government’s controversial West Bank land registration project, which critics have described as “de facto annexation” of the territory.

The court ordered the Justice Ministry, Defense Ministry and other agencies to respond to those petitioning for the freeze by next Thursday.

The court did not give a reason for the freeze, but it was welcomed by the organizations that had petitioned against the land registration process, including Yesh Din, Bimkom and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which said in their petition that the process violates international law.

“The renewal of the land registration process in the West Bank constitutes a clear act of annexation, and the tender for administering it was carried out without authority and unlawfully,” they said in a statement following the ruling.

“The tender, and the process as a whole, must be voided, since its implementation and execution will lead to widespread harm to the human rights of Palestinians and a flagrant violation of international law.”

In February, the cabinet approved the renewal of the land registration process in the West Bank that was frozen in 1968, the year after Israel took the territory from Jordan in the Six Day War. The goal of renewing the process was to enable the registration of broad swaths of land as state land that could then be used for Israeli development.

The ownership of some two-thirds of all West Bank land has never been formally registered. After the cabinet approval, the Justice Ministry issued a tender for private contractors to carry out the land registration process, and the tender was recently awarded.

The three Israeli civil rights organizations filed legal petitions against the renewal of........

© The Times of Israel