Palestinian Land Registration and the Encouragement of Settlement

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Amid the intense talk of Zionist settlement in the West Bank and the constant condemnations of Zionist housing activity, an observer would expect there to be a rigorous and active Palestinian policy in the field of housing competition over the land, and that the Palestinian Authority would do everything in its power to encourage Palestinians to build homes wherever possible across the West Bank. An observer is entitled to imagine that Palestinians are working night and day, like a beehive, planting the land with trees and houses in order to create facts on the ground that counter the facts Israel is trying to impose on the Palestinians and on the world.

In truth, this is an old problem, one that was already the subject of debate and controversy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Palestine Liberation Organization had been asked to direct the steadfastness funds decided upon by the 1978 Baghdad Arab Summit toward housing construction, and to provide housing support to farmers and workers so they could build modest homes across the West Bank. But what actually happened was that the Organization and Jordan used the money to buy loyalties and win political support, and not a single farmer or worker received a loan of four thousand Jordanian dinars to shelter his family. The money went into the pockets of opportunists, the wealthy, and self-promoters on the margins of national work.

The Palestinian Authority came along and drifted far away from any policy of creating Palestinian facts on the ground that would hem in Zionist settlement. Things have now reached the point where the procedures for registering people’s land have grown complicated, and exorbitant fees have been imposed on them. Registration procedures are extremely complex; land-value assessments have been raised, and registration fees have been raised from 1% of the land’s value to 3%. Wherever you go in Palestine, you must pay high fees, very often without receiving any service in return. Some West Bank municipalities also complicate the procedures for issuing building permits, so that the Palestinian citizen is weighed down by the procedures and fees imposed on him.

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…The Authority converted broad areas into agricultural land without planting a single tree in them, thereby preventing landowners from building homes there. There are rumors that the Authority’s government has amended or rescinded this decision, but we have not yet read any written decisions on the matter. This zoning map covers the largest geographic area in the West Bank classified as Area A — that is, under the Authority’s administration and security responsibility — and many people comment that through this map, the Authority wanted to open the way for Israelis to settle in the area.

Even on Nablus’s own lands, someone licensed an industrial enclave in the middle of residential land. An aluminum factory was built there, which made people wary of building in the area for fear of pollution. Some officials say the factory does not emit toxins into the air, but this has never been issued as an official decision clarifying to the people that the factory poses no danger to public health.

The Rise in Transaction Fees

Palestinian governments have worked to raise transaction fees in order to collect more money to cover the Authority’s expenses, foremost among them the expenses of corruption. The Europeans and Americans have asked the Authority to collect as much money as possible from people’s pockets to pay the salaries of Authority employees, knowing full well that around 83% of these employees belong to the Fatah movement and its supporters. The Palestinian people are not obligated to fund political factions. Nor is that all: the Palestinian people must pay the salaries of members of security services who coordinate security matters with the Israeli security services. The Palestinian is now required to finance the cost of guarding Israel’s own security.

What is needed is not raising taxes and fees, but eliminating corruption, as the optimal solution for freeing up money and relieving people of the weights and burdens imposed by the Palestinian Authority and its government.

In short, the Palestinian government is a burden on the people, not an asset to them, and the trust now rests on the people’s own shoulders. If the people remain silent, justice will never come to settle on their land.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “إجراءات تسجيل الأراضي الفلسطينية وتشجيع الاستيطان” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.