JERUSALEM, May 27, 2026 (WAFA) – Israel, the occupying state, launched on Wednesday morning an online system for the registration of the territory of the occupied State of Palestine (occupied West Bank).
Israel launched the “Land Registry and Settlement of Rights” online system, codenamed “ Grenade,” amid open endorsement from Jewish supremacist Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Orit Strook, who described it as “a central pillar in applying sovereignty in the territory and strengthening Israeli hold on Judea and Samaria.”
Israel uses the Jewish nationalist name “Judea and Samaria” to refer to the occupied West Bank to reinforce its bogus claims to the territory and to give them a veneer of historical and religious legitimacy.
The Jerusalem Governorate stated that the online system is a tool to further entrench the unlawful seizure of Palestinian land through the restructuring of the land registration system in a manner that serves annexation and control plans, all under the guise of modernization of the digital land registry.
In May 2025, the Israeli Security Cabinet decided to initiate a comprehensive land ownership settlement process across the occupied West Bank, in a move intended to complete the juridical and administrative annexation of occupied territory through the wholesale registration of land under Israeli authority.
Operationalized on 15 February 2026, the scheme transferred powers to the Israeli Ministry of Justice and the Survey of Israel. A total of ILS 244 million (US$79 million) was allocated to the project, and the permanent appropriation and registration procedures were commenced for approximately 58 percent of Area C, corresponding to around 35 percent of the occupied West Bank, excluding occupied East Jerusalem.
The Governorate stressed that international law is unequivocal: an occupying power is prohibited from annexing occupied territory, permanently confiscating public or private property outside the strict limits of military necessity or altering the legal status of the territory under occupation. Nevertheless, this is precisely what is now taking place openly through administrative and technological means designed to consolidate Israel’s unlawful occupation and annexation of the occupied West Bank and render it increasingly irreversible.
It emphasized that the gravity of this decision lies in the direct targeting of lands classified as Area C, as the occupation authorities seek to seize every parcel of land whose Palestinian owners lack officially registered ownership documents, threatening to seize vast tracts of historic Palestinian land.
K.F.
