Tomorrow (September 11), the Knesset Finance Committee will discuss a Finance Ministry request to allocate 21 staff positions to create a new enforcement unit within the Israel Land Authority that will operate in the West Bank. The move constitutes a step of annexation: applying the Israel Land Authority outside Israel’s official borders. It also represents a significant expansion of enforcement and demolitions against Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Peace Now: “The decision reflects the government’s distorted priorities. There is no Israeli interest in demolishing poor and vulnerable communities in the West Bank, apart from the settlement interest of dispossession and land seizure. The government is choosing to invest millions in destruction and in deepening hatred and occupation, instead of beginning to build a future of peace for both peoples of this land.”
A Step of Annexation
The Land Protection Division of the Israel Land Authority (ILA) was created to prevent encroachments on public land inside Israel. It operates across the country, but most of its work is in the Negev, where Israel classifies most land as public (“state land”), and the division works to remove Bedouin citizens from these areas. Adding 21 new employees and creating a “Judea and Samaria District” within the division will expand its workforce by about 20 percent.
The Israel Land Authority operates inside Israel under Israeli law, enacted by the Knesset. In the West Bank, the ILA does not act directly but through the Custodian of Government Property in the Civil Administration, in accordance with international law and the legal regime in force in the West Bank. Direct operation of the Israel Land Authority in the occupied territories would be a step of annexation, meaning that the Israeli government administers the West Bank directly instead of, as international law requires, through the military.
Increased Demolitions Against Palestinians
In recent years, the government has intensified enforcement and demolitions against Palestinians in Area C, and more recently also in Area B. Over the past two years, demolitions of Palestinian structures, on the grounds of lacking permits, have reached a record of more than 1,000 each year.
The body responsible for enforcement and demolitions in the West Bank is the Civil Administration’s Inspection Unit, which operates under military law. In recent years, the government has significantly increased investment in the unit:
Year |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
| Inspection Unit budget* (millions of NIS) | 16.9 | 24.1 | 26.2 | 26.5 | 25.3 |
| Approved staff positions** | 54 | 54 | 69 | 67 | 67 |
* Execution budget figures (except 2025, which reflects the original budget).
** Approved positions; not all are filled.
In addition to the tens of millions of shekels invested in the Civil Administration’s Inspection Unit, the government, through the Ministry of Settlements headed by Minister Orit Strock, allocates about 33 million shekels annually to settlement municipalities for operating “land patrol units.” These units employ about 25 patrol officers and several administrative staff. They act in the field to signal Palestinian construction and land use even though they lack legal enforcement authority. The power to enforce rests solely with the Civil Administration’s Inspection Unit.
The government now seeks to add 21 more staff from the Land Protection Division of the Israel Land Authority to the roughly 100 already involved in enforcement through the Civil Administration and the settlement municipalities. The division of the ILA has advanced technological tools, based on artificial intelligence, for detecting encroachments. These tools may also be used by the new unit that will operate in the West Bank.