In response to a call for input, Al-Haq made a submission to the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Mr. Balakrishnan Rajagopal, to inform the forthcoming report on land governance and land management and the right to adequate housing to be presented in October 2025 to the UN General Assembly. The submission examined Israeli measures to consolidate annexation of the West Bank, particularly those undertaken by the 37th Israeli government and spearheaded by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, focusing on Israel’s demolitions in Area B.
As part of Smotrich’s plan to increase the settler population in the West Bank by 500,000, on 11 May 2025, the Israeli Security Cabinet decided to initiate land registration process (or a land title settlement process) in Area C of the West Bank. Smotrich regards this decision “as part of the revolution in normalization and de facto sovereignty that we are leading in [the West Bank],” regarding this as “the first time, the State of Israel takes responsibility for the territory as a permanent sovereign.” This decision, along with others, effectively mean the mass dispossession of Palestinians from their lands and properties, consolidating Israel’s annexation of the OPT, and introducing the registration of lands in the West Bank in the names of Israeli citizens. Israel has initiated a similar process in Jerusalem in 2018 to strengthen its sovereignty in occupied Jerusalem, and seize control over and appropriate more Palestinian property, through a costly and procedurally burdensome process.
The year 2024 witnessed an acceleration in Israel’s annexation plans and practices. Approximately half of all the land declared as state land since the Oslo Accords were declared in 2024. At least 59 new outposts have been established, most of them pastoral outposts, while at least 8 outposts have been established in Area B for the first time since the Oslo Accords. Additionally, Israel is further extending its jurisdiction in Area B, granting it enforcement, planning, and building authorities in territories transferred under the Oslo Accords to the Palestinian Authority, including demolition of Palestinian structures in Area B.
Much of the demolitions of structures in Area B were carried out on the basis of building in restricted areas – which refers to areas close to the Annexation Wall, settlements, and settler roads, regarded as ‘security zones’. According to Al-Haq’s documentation, the Israeli authorities have demolished 753 residential structures between October 2023 and April 2025 in the occupied West Bank. The largest number of demolitions is found in Jerusalem governorate, at 314 structures, followed by Hebron governorate at 153 structures, and Jericho governorate at 81 structures, while July 2024 marked the highest number of demolitions, at 88 structures, followed by April 2025, at 69 structures throughout the reported period.
Israeli laws, policies and practices in relation to land in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) are designed to entrench its control over the OPT, dispossess and displace Palestinians, and create irreversible effects on the ground, which “amount to annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” as found by the International Court of Justice in its landmark Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024. Extending Israel’s sovereignty over the OPT amounts to purported annexation, as “conduct by the occupying Power that display an intent to exercise permanent control over the occupied territory may indicate an act of annexation,” as held by the Court.
Recommendations for the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing
In light of Israel’s increased attacks on Palestinians rights to land and adequate housing, and its colonial genocidal violence inflicted upon Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, particularly in northern West Bank aimed at demographically re-engineering refugee camps, Al-Haq recommends the Special Rapporteur following:
i. Denounce the land title settlement processes in Area C of the occupied West Bank and in Jerusalem, as unlawful practices that create irreversible effects in occupied territory, in violation to international law and Palestinian inalienable rights to self-determination and return;
ii. Call on Israel to repeal and cease all laws, policies and practices that aim to extend its jurisdiction and control over Areas B and C of the occupied West Bank, and alter the demographic composition of the OPT;
iii. Call on Third States to tackle Israel’s demolition of Palestinian properties in Area B through its root causes, namely Israel’s Zionist settler-colonial and apartheid regime and illegal occupation;
iv. Call on Third States to use every means at their disposal to compel Israel to respect international law, including imposing a two-way arms embargo against Israel and targeted sanctions, and trigger universal jurisdiction against perpetrators of international crimes against Palestinians, including for the construction of settlements;
v. Call on Third States to compel persons and institutions under their jurisdictions to end their complicity in Israel’s international crimes against Palestinians, including complicit companies such as Hyundai, JCB, and Volvo, which provide Israel with bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian properties; and
vi. Call on Third States to implement the recommendations of the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, to not render aid or assistance to Israel’s illegal acts, bringing to an end as rapidly as possible Israel’s unlawful presence, ensuring that Israel immediately ceases all settlement activities and evacuates all settlers from the Palestinian territory.
Read the full submission here.