OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Jerusalem Governorate warned of the latest decision by the Israeli occupation authorities to complete the settlement and registration of all lands of the occupied city of Jerusalem in the Israeli land registry, the Tabu, by the end of 2029, in the most dangerous settlement step since the occupation of the city in 1967, representing a shift from a policy of gradual confiscation to a final and documented determination of land ownership in favor of the occupation entity and its colonial institutions.
The Governorate clarified in a statement issued on Tuesday that the new decision No. 3792 comes as a continuation and a direct escalation of decision No. 3790 issued in 2018, which was included within what was called the plan to reduce social and economic gaps in East Jerusalem, while in essence it was an organized colonial project to settle lands according to Israeli law and impose full Israeli sovereignty over the occupied city.
The settlement project is considered a blatant circumvention of international law applicable to occupied territories, including Jerusalem and its surroundings, which prohibits the transfer of private property into public property and prevents the dispossession of the occupied population or depriving them of their property. The implementation of this law results in the displacement of Palestinians from their homes and the loss of their lands, which is classified under international law as war crimes and constitutes a clear violation of the rules of international humanitarian law.
The Jerusalem Governorate affirmed that Jerusalemites today face an imminent threat to their presence in their homes and lands, not because of the absence of actual ownership, but due to the impossibility of proving it under coercive Israeli conditions.
It explained that the majority of Jerusalemite homes are built on lands whose registration procedures were not completed after the occupation authorities halted the land settlement process following 1967, leaving ownership registered in the names of ancestors or in Jordanian records that are not recognized, while many heirs live outside the country, which allows the occupation to classify them as absentees and activate the Absentees Property Law to register the lands in the name of the state, the occupation municipality, or settlement associations.
It confirmed that through this legal maneuver, the homeowner is turned into an occupant without legal title, while the procedures to register the land in the name of the occupation are completed, followed by eviction orders, demolition, or final transfer of ownership that cannot be challenged later.
According to the statement, since the launch of the settlement project in 2018, around 50 basins have been completed in various areas of Jerusalem, with a total area of approximately 2000 dunums and 300 square meters, and the results clearly showed the nature of the project and its colonial objectives.
It pointed to the registration of about 85% of the lands in the names of settlement neighborhoods or settlements, or their transfer to the ownership of the occupation state and its public bodies, while only about 1% were registered in the names of Jerusalemite owners.
According to the statement, the project included areas where existing settlements are established or planned, and it also affected inhabited Palestinian neighborhoods, leading to the issuance of eviction orders against families who were not aware of the settlement procedures, as happened with 17 families in the Al-Mashahid neighborhood in Umm Tuba, south east Jerusalem, in 2025, where their lands were registered in the name of what is called the Jewish National Fund.
It concluded by emphasizing that the danger of the new decision increases with the expansion of the powers and budgets of the settlement committees, the strengthening of partnership with the Custodian of Absentees Property, and turning it into an official partner in implementing the project, which opens the door wide for extensive application of the Absentees Property Law to thousands of properties, especially given the presence of heirs outside the city and Palestine as well, or the inability of families to provide recognizable ownership documents.
