To Legalize Outposts, Government Declares 1,5...

Over the past two weeks, the Civil Administration’s Government Property Custodian declared 1,522 dunams as “state land” in two separate declarations:

1. Approximately 1,152 dunams for the legalization of Givat Harel outpost south of Nablus,
2. Approximately 370 dunams for the legalization of the Keidar South outpost and to connect it to the E1 plan area.

Since the current government took office in December 2022, approximately 28,641 dunams have been declared state land. This exceeds the total land declared state land from the Oslo Accords until this government’s formation.

Declaring land as “state land” is a primary method Israel uses to assume control in the occupied territories. Once declared, the land is no longer recognized as privately owned by Palestinians, who are then prohibited from using it. Then the state allocates this land exclusively to Israelis.

In the 1980s, Israel declared hundreds of thousands of dunams as state land. The Rabin government halted these declarations in 1992, but the Netanyahu government resumed the practice in 1998.

Since the current government took office, the amount of land declared state land has increased sharply.

Peace Now: “Netanyahu and Smotrich are determined to fight against the entire world and against the interests of Israel’s citizens for the sake of a handful of settlers who are handed thousands of dunams as a gift — land taken from Palestinians through disgraceful means. This is another government grab before the election, in a race to create more and more facts on the ground that will make it harder for Israel to reach peace. Today it is clear to everyone that this conflict cannot be resolved without a political agreement that includes the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, yet the Israeli government chooses instead to make this more difficult and move us further away from the possibility of peace and an end to the bloodshed.”

For more on the process of declaring state land, see here.

Legalizing the Givat Harel Outpost

On August 18, 2026, the Civil Administration’s Government Property Custodian declared 1,152 dunams from the villages of Sinjil, Luban a-Sharqiya, and Qariyut as “state land.”

The Givat Harel outpost was established on land from these villages in 1998, and today dozens of settler families live there. In an announcement published by Minister Smotrich, he boasted about the move and announced that the outpost has been fully legalized and renamed “Carmei Oz.”

In February 2023, the cabinet decided to legalize the outpost as an independent settlement. Now, as part of the legalization process, the state is declaring the land “state land” so that it can be allocated for planning and later for construction. The outpost itself covers approximately 250 dunams, but in order to legalize it, the government has taken control of an area more than four times the size of the outpost. Over the years, settlers have taken control of thousands of dunams around the outpost, where they grow vineyards and olive groves, and the “Gvaot Winery” operates inside the outpost. The declaration map shows that a significant portion of these vineyards are in fact located on private land.

Legalizing the Keidar South Outpost

On August 27, 2026, the Civil Administration’s Government Property Custodian declared 370.28 dunams from Abu Dis and as-Sawahra a-Sharqiya as “state land,” part of a push to take over land and connect Keidar to the planned settlement of Mishmar Yehuda.

The connection and establishment of the planned settlement will allow the government to expand Israeli control around the E1 plan by thousands of additional dunams, which will become part of the Israeli territorial area and be closed to Palestinians.

Apparently, this is intended to enable the legalization of the Keidar South outpost and connect it to the planned Mishmar Yehuda settlement.

A review of the declaration map shows that the government is effectively taking almost every piece of land in the area, leaving only the homes of local Bedouins and adjacent small areas privately owned.

For the list of state land declarations since 1992. For the Civil Administration’s response to a Freedom of Information request containing the list of state land declarations, December 2016. What is a declaration of state land?