The Custodian of the State’s Property in the Civil Administration announced a significant declaration of state land in the Jordan Valley. On June 25, 2024, a total of 12,700 dunams (approximately 3,140 acres) were designated as state lands. This move supplements previous declarations, including 2,640 dunams made on February 29, 2024, between the settlements of Ma’ale Adumim and Keidar, and an additional 8,000 dunams declared on March 20, 2024, in an adjacent area. Furthermore, 170 dunams near the Herodium were also included in the recent declaration.
This latest announcement represents the largest allocation of state land since the Oslo Accords. Since the beginning of 2024, Israel has declared a total of 23,700 dunams in the West Bank as state lands.
Peace Now, an Israeli non-governmental organization advocating for a two-state solution, criticised the move. They argue that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister Smotrich prioritize the interests of settlers over broader peace efforts. According to Peace Now, a political settlement establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel is essential for resolving the conflict and ending the bloodshed.
The declaration, signed on June 25, 2024, was only published on July 3, 2024. Notably, this marks the first declaration on state lands made under the authority of Hillel Roth, the Civilian Deputy appointed by Minister Smotrich. Roth now holds most of the powers previously vested in the head of the Civil Administration.
The bureaucratic and legal work for these declarations was overseen by the Settlement Administration, established by the government to accelerate settlement activity in the territories. Surprisingly, legal advice for this announcement came from the lawyers in the legal advice department of the Ministry of Defense, rather than the legal advisors of the IDF in the Civil Administration.
Minister Smotritch emphasised the strategic importance of these declarations, stating that they would significantly alter the territorial landscape. He estimated that by the end of the year, an additional 10,000 to 15,000 dunams would be declared as state lands.
The declaration affects land previously designated as a nature reserve and a “fire area” for military use. Palestinians, who previously considered this land privately owned, are now prevented from using it. Israel exclusively leases state land to Israeli settlers.
This move creates territorial continuity between settlements in the Jordan Valley (Yifit and Masu’a) and those at the eastern end of the mountainside (Gitit and Ma’ale Efraim).
Throughout the 1980s, Israel declared hundreds of thousands of dunams as state land. Although the Rabin government halted such declarations in 1992, the first Netanyahu government resumed this practice in 1998. Since then, periodic declarations have become a contentious issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
