HCJ 28845-9/25, Yesh Din et al. v. the Ministerial Committee on National Security Affairs (Security Cabinet) et al.

Date of submission: September 11, 2025

Settlement of title is a process in which title to land is determined and registered under the lawful owners’ name in the land registry (known as tabu or tapu) in a definitive and binding manner. It is a comprehensive process and entails examining the historical chain of rights, investigating ownership and usufruct, and determining boundaries by surveying and dividing land into blocks and plots. Once concluded, the process of registration is rarely reversible.

Settlement of title proceedings in historical Palestine were conducted in full force under the British Mandate, which applied new scientific methods for surveying and registering land. The Jordanian Kingdom continued settlement of title in the West Bank as of 1948. By June 1967, settlement of title had been completed for approximately 34% of West Bank land, chiefly in the northern governorates (Jenin and Nablus), the Ramallah area and the Jordan Valley. Settlement of title remained incomplete in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, as well as in the Bethlehem and Hebron governorates.

After Israel conquered the West Bank in 1967, Israel’s Military Commander of the Area immediately suspended settlement of title proceedings. An official order was issued to this effect, directed by then Military Advocate General, Meir Shamgar. The decision to suspend settlement of title was based on Israel’s obligations as an occupying force under international law, which determines that occupation is a temporary situation. Settlement of title proceedings are the act of a permanent sovereign because they create and determine absolute rights in perpetuity. Therefore a regime of occupation, which is temporary by definition, must refrain from engaging in acts that characterize a permanent regime.

In May 2025, the security cabinet resolved to renew settlement of title proceedings in the West Bank. The cabinet decision intends settlement of title to achieve the declared ideological and political aspiration of applying sovereignty to the West Bank while dispossessing Palestinians and driving them away from the territory. Cabinet members have testified that renewing these proceedings is designed to reinforce Israeli settlements and annex the West Bank to Israel although this blatantly violates Israel’s obligations under international law. For instance, in a statement issued by the Ministry of Defense, Minster of Defense Israel Katz declared: “This is a revolutionary decision that does justice to Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria and will strengthen, reinforce and expand it.” Minister of Finance and additional minister in the Ministry of Defense, Bezalel Smotrich, explicitly admitted that the purpose of renewal of settlement of title is annexing the West Bank: “For the first time, the State of Israel is taking responsibility for the territory as a permanent sovereign and is implementing settlement of title in Judea and Samaria. Settlement of title will create legal certainty, provide land reserves for settlement development, and prevent the PA’s efforts to take over the open areas.”

On September 11, 2025, Yesh Din, Bimkom – Planners for Human Rights, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel and HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual petitioned the High Court of Justice demanding that the cabinet resolution to renew land settlement proceedings in the West Bank be revoked. The petition argued that the cabinet resolution is clearly designed to annex the occupied territory to Israel in defiance of Israel’s obligations under the law of occupation and international humanitarian law.

The petitioners warned that the resolution is an additional measure for dispossessing Palestinian residents of their land and property. It would harm the most basic rights of Palestinian residents of the West Bank, who are considered protected persons under international law, as well as the rights of many Palestinians turned absentee, who will be unable to protect their property. The cabinet’s resolution would harm the disenfranchised Palestinian residents of the West Bank, who have no way of influencing the government’s decisions or their future.

According to the petition, this is an irreversible measure with immense implications designed to determine title to land in the occupied territory. According to the petition, “The resolution has acute implications on the State of Israel’s relationship with the territory for which the Respondent 4 [Commander of the Army Forces in the West Bank] has been granted temporary control; it would openly, intentionally and consequentially lead to annexation and application of sovereignty de facto, in defiance of international law.”

On January 27, 2026, the High Court of Justice dismissed the petition on the grounds that it was premature, holding that the cabinet resolution constitutes only a preliminary stage and that no steps have yet been taken that would result in irreversible harm. By doing so, the Court refrained from addressing the substantive arguments concerning the legality of renewing settlement of title proceedings in occupied territory and their implications as part of an overall move toward annexation of the West Bank. In practice, the judgment leaves the government with broad latitude to continue advancing a policy of dispossession of Palestinian residents, land expropriation, and the application of Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank.

Petition status: rejected