The Israeli Knesset’s plenum approved on last Wednesday, Jan 29, the preliminary reading of a bill (58 – 33) that will allow Israelis to purchase land in the occupied West Bank without any restrictions. In response, MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash) called this “annexation on steroids.”

Damage caused during pogrom of settlers last in the village of Jinsafut, in the occupied West Bank, January 21, 2025 (Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)
Under the current law, Israeli individuals cannot purchase land in the West Bank. In 1971, the law was amended to add a loophole allowing companies registered to operate in the West Bank (like the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund) to purchase property and often do so only to give it to Israeli settlers. This additional change would open the door for private purchases across the West Bank by settlers and their backers, including in the heart of Palestinian cities.
According to MK Touma-Sliman, “The bill that was approved in preliminary reading in the Knesset plenary now removes another obstacle on the way to a complete takeover of the West Bank. In serious violation of international law, Israel behaves as a sovereign in an occupied territory and promotes de jure annexation, a colonialism that is brazenly called ‘equality.’ The approval of the bill is a direct continuation of structural changes carried out in the area, including construction permits, declaration of state lands, construction of outposts in Area B, road construction, transfer of civil administration powers to Messianic ministers and more. The annexation is no longer crawling, not racing, it is carried out slowly but surely.”
Peace Now said, “This is yet another annexation moves initiated by the messianic right. The proposal seeks to allow settlers to purchase land without any oversight throughout the West Bank, effectively making them ‘landlords’ in the West Bank in both symbolic and practical terms. The bill would give a small number of extremist settlers the ability to acquire land and later establish settlements, whether in the heart of Hebron or anywhere else, and drag the army to risk soldiers’ lives and protect them. Furthermore, the Knesset has no authority to legislate laws for areas that are not under Israeli sovereignty, and the attempt to apply Knesset laws to the occupied territory constitutes annexation and a blatant violation of international law.”
In addition, Yesh Din explains: “The law aims to ease the purchase of land in the occupied territory by settlers and to expand the settlement enterprise. It seeks to establish permanent changes in land ownership in the West Bank by enabling, for the first time, individual Israelis to buy land directly instead of the current requirement to buy land through companies registered with the Civil Administration Companies Registry. This kind of ownership would be permanent and irreversible.”
“The name of the law and its explanatory notes are misleading. The bill presents itself as fixing an ongoing injustice of alleged discrimination against settlers. The land regime in the West Bank enacts blatant discrimination in which 99% of the public (state’) land is allocated to settlements. If the legislation is fully enacted, it will not only further entrench the existing discrimination but ease and facilitate the purchase of West Bank lands by Israeli settlers. Additionally, and no less significantly, legislation by the Israeli Knesset regarding the occupied territory constitutes the application of Israeli sovereignty to the occupied land, in violation of international law, which prohibits annexation.”