page_title: Declarations of State Land in the West Bank
section_title: Declarations after 2014
hierarchical_section_title: Declarations of State Land in the West Bank / Declarations after 2014
caption_attribution_description: English: Map showing Gush Etzion area of West Bank and settlements therein.
context_page_description: Declarations of State Land in the West Bank are declarations by Israeli authorities that Palestinian land is "state land", that is, land that may be legally administered by an occupying power on a temporary basis under international law, on the theory that the occupier is holding the territory in trust until sovereignty can be restored. It was and is the principal method used by the governments of Mandatory Palestine and Israel respectively, to acquire land from Palestinians and sell it to Israeli settlers. According to B'Tselem, it was used to expropriate 16% of the West Bank.
context_section_description: According to Peace Now, declarations had ceased after the roadmap was concluded in 2003 but that following Netanyahu's taking office in 2009, declarations totalled more than 6000 dunums as of the end of 2015. In late August 2014, in what was widely reported as a land grab, the authorities  announced the appopriation 988 acres (3,799 dunums), defining private land south of Bethlehem as state land, which Peace Now said was the largest confiscation of Palestinian land in three decades. Then, on March 10, 2016, 2,342 dunams (580 acres) south of Jericho were declared as state land.
caption: "State Land" declarations in the Gush Etzion settlement area (Bethlehem)
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