AP 82433-06/26, Yesh Din et al. v. Ministry of Justice et al.

Settlement of Land Title (SOLT) is a process designed to resolve land ownership and have properties definitively and conclusively registered in their lawful owner’s name in the official land registry (known as tabu or tapu). SOLT gained momentum in historic Palestine under British Mandate rule, and after 1948, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan continued the process, completing the registration of about 34% of the West Bank. Immediately after seizing the West Bank in 1967, Israel suspended SOLT, in keeping with its obligations under international law, which establishes that occupation is temporary.

In May 2025, after a decades-long suspension, Israel’s Security Cabinet decided to renew SOLT in the West Bank. Cabinet members openly said the purpose of the decision was to strengthen the settlements and annex the West Bank, a blatant violation of Israel’s obligations under international law. In January 2026, the High Court of Justice dismissed a petition Yesh Din filed with other organizations against the renewal of SOLT, holding that the petition was premature, the government decision was merely a preliminary stage, and no steps causing irreversible harm had been taken yet.

In May 2026, the Ministry of Justice published a call for tender, looking for a private actor to run SOLT in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

On June 25, 2026, Yesh Din, Bimkom and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel filed a petition with the Jerusalem District Court, demanding the cancellation of the Ministry of Justice’s tender for SOLT in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The petition argues that the Ministry of Justice has no authority whatsoever to carry out SOLT in the West Bank, much less authority to delegate this power to other parties; that the tender, seeking to find a private actor to run the process, constitutes prohibited privatization of governmental powers; that the tender itself discriminates against Palestinian residents of the West Bank, who cannot participate in it at all; and above all, that renewal of SOLT is, per se, unlawful and constitutes forbidden annexation.

On July 10, 2026, the District Court declined to grant either a temporary injunction or interim relief. The petitioners subsequently filed an application for leave to appeal that decision.

On September 15, 2026, the Jerusalem District Court issued a temporary order instructing the State to refrain from advancing the tender for the management of settlement of title proceedings in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Petition status: pending.