Foreign ministers from Muslim, Arab countries denounce Israeli West Bank bill to expand control

A group of Arab and Muslim states condemned Israel’s latest Security Cabinet decisions on West Bank land policy, planning authority, and enforcement powers.

Foreign Ministers from various Arab and Muslim countries denounced the Israeli Security Cabinet’s Sunday decision approving a wide-ranging set of measures intended to strengthen Israel’s administrative and legal control over the West Bank.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry published the joint statement on X/Twitter, noting that it was co-signed by the ministers of the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt.

The ministers “condemned in the strongest terms the illegal Israeli decisions and measures aimed at imposing unlawful Israeli sovereignty, entrenching settlement activity, and enforcing a new legal and administrative reality in the occupied West Bank.”

This would “accelerate attempts” to “illegally annex” the region and displace Palestinians, they argued, claiming that Israel has no sovereignty in the “occupied Palestinian territories.”

“Continued expansionist Israeli policies and illegal measures… fuel violence and conflict in the region,” they affirmed, while “absolutely rejecting these illegal actions, which constitute a blatant violation of international law, undermine the two-state solution, and represent an assault on the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to realize their independent and sovereign state.”

The Security Cabinet’s measures constitute a violation of UN Security Council resolutions, “particularly UNSCR 2334, which condemns all Israeli measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character, and status of the territory,” they argued.

What measures did the Security Cabinet decide to approve for governance in the West Bank?

The Security Cabinet’s decisions focused on land policy, planning authority, and enforcement powers, and were presented by the government as steps toward what it described as the “normalization” of civilian life for Jewish residents in the area.

According to a joint statement by Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the cabinet ordered the removal of long-standing confidentiality restrictions on land registration records in the West Bank.

The records are expected to make land transactions more transparent and easier to conduct. Until now, unlike inside Israel’s pre-1967 boundaries, land registries in the West Bank were kept confidential, a situation the ministers said created legal uncertainty, hindered purchases, and enabled fraud.

One of the most significant decisions was the repeal of a Jordanian-era law that barred the sale of land to Jews. Jordan controlled the territory from 1948 until 1967, and parts of its legal framework remained in force.

Under that system, Jews could purchase land only indirectly, through registered companies, and only after receiving a special transaction permit from Israel’s Civil Administration, the military-run body that oversees civilian affairs in the area.

The cabinet further decided to expand Israeli supervision and enforcement activities into Areas A and B of the West Bank, administrative divisions established by the Oslo Accords.

Pesach Benson/TPS contributed to this report.