February 16, 2026
Israel approves West Bank land registration for first time since 1967
New Israeli plan opens legal path to annexing Palestinian land through property records
🌍Foreign Policy⚖️Justice📜Constitutional Law
Israel's government approved a West Bank land registration plan on Feb. 16, 2026 — the first authorization for systematic registration since the military occupation began in 1967. Registration under Israeli property law is the legal mechanism that converts de facto military control into recognized ownership.
West Bank land registration has been frozen under international law since 1967. The legal principle is that an occupying power cannot permanently alter the status of territory it controls by force, since occupation is defined as a temporary condition pending a negotiated resolution.
Legal experts and Palestinian officials say the registration plan creates a pathway for Israel to annex Palestinian land by establishing Israeli property records. This process has historically preceded settlement expansion and de facto annexation in other parts of the West Bank.
The plan's approval came hours before Israeli settlers attacked the family of Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian-Israeli director whose film 'No Other Land' documented Israeli military demolitions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2025.
Settlers attacked the Ballal family home in the village of Susya. When Ballal's brother called police, Israeli soldiers arrived and arrested four family members rather than the settlers. Ballal said the same settler who attacked him in March 2025 led the Feb. 16 raid.
The Trump administration reversed executive order sanctions on Israeli settlers that Biden had imposed in response to documented settler violence against Palestinian communities. The reversal came in January 2025 and the administration has not condemned subsequent settler attacks.
The U.S. provides Israel with approximately $3.8 billion per year in military aid under a 10-year memorandum of understanding signed in 2016. Under the Leahy Law, U.S. military aid cannot go to foreign security forces credibly implicated in gross violations of human rights.
The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring its civilian population to occupied territory or permanently altering the demographic or legal character of that territory. Land registration under the occupying power's domestic property law is a mechanism legal scholars say violates this prohibition.
Israel's coalition government includes National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have publicly called for formal annexation of the West Bank. Their parties hold seats that are essential to Netanyahu's coalition majority.
🌍Foreign Policy⚖️Justice📜Constitutional Law
People, bills, and sources
Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister of Israel
Itamar Ben-Gvir
Israeli Minister of National Security
Hamdan Ballal
Palestinian-Israeli filmmaker; Oscar winner for 'No Other Land'
Donald Trump
President of the United States
Philippe Lazzarini
Commissioner-General, UNRWA (U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees)
What you can do
1
civic action
Contact your representative about Leahy Law compliance and U.S. military aid to Israel
The Leahy Law prohibits U.S. military aid to foreign security force units credibly implicated in gross violations of human rights. Human rights organizations have formally asked the State Department to apply Leahy Law findings to specific Israeli military and border police units operating in the West Bank. Your representative can demand a State Department report on compliance.
Hi, my name is [NAME] and I'm a constituent from [DISTRICT]. I'm calling about U.S. military aid to Israel and the Leahy Law. Following Israel's approval of West Bank land registration and ongoing settler violence, I'm asking Rep. [NAME] to request a State Department report on whether any Israeli security forces receiving U.S. aid have been credibly implicated in gross human rights violations. Can you tell me the representative's position?
2
educational
Learn what the Fourth Geneva Convention says about occupied territory
The Fourth Geneva Convention governs how occupying powers must treat civilian populations in territories they control by force. It prohibits permanent legal changes to occupied territory and transfer of the occupying power's population to that territory. Understanding this framework helps evaluate whether Israeli land registration violates binding international law.
Visit ihl-databases.icrc.org to read the text of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the ICRC's official commentary on how it applies to occupied territories like the West Bank.
3
civic action
Contact the State Department about the U.S. position on Israeli West Bank land claims
U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty claims in the West Bank would represent a major shift from decades of bipartisan policy holding that final status must be negotiated. You can contact the State Department directly or through your senators to ask what the current U.S. position is on Israeli land registration in the West Bank.
Hi, my name is [NAME] from [STATE]. I'm calling to ask what the current U.S. position is on Israel's Feb. 16 approval of West Bank land registration. U.S. policy has long held that West Bank final status must be negotiated — not determined unilaterally. I'd like to know whether the administration has communicated any position to the Israeli government on this plan.