Eight Arab and Islamic countries, including Qatar, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, issued a unified statement from Doha condemning Israel’s decision to designate vast tracts of the occupied West Bank as “state land,” Al Mayadeen reported Tuesday.

This policy, the first of its kind since 1967, initiates comprehensive land registration for 15% of Area C by 2030.

Spearheaded by far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich, Yariv Levin, and Israel Katz, the plan converts land into state property unless Palestinians can provide documentation that meets rigorous Israeli evidentiary standards—a process critics say is nearly impossible due to decades of displacement and restricted records.

Under the 1995 Oslo II Accord, Area C comprises 61% of the West Bank and remains under full Israeli control.

Palestinian officials and Hamas have denounced these actions as de facto annexation and “settlement-based Judaization.”

This occurs amid a surge in violence by Israel that has seen over 1,000 Palestinians killed in the West Bank since October 2023.

The eight foreign ministers warned that institutionalizing Israeli land control violates the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN Security Council Resolution 2334.

They echoed the July 2024 International Court of Justice ruling, which declared the occupation illegal.

By altering the legal and administrative reality of the 1967 lines, the ministers cautioned that these measures would fragment Palestinian territory and extinguish the possibility of a sovereign state with al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.

They called on the international community to take decisive action to uphold international law and safeguard the Palestinian right to self-determination.