Dispossession and settlement expansion

Dispossession through land registration procedures

The process of formal land registration, or Settlement of Land Title (SOLT) in East Jerusalem poses a major threat to Palestinian residents and serves as a tool for Israelizing areas beyond the Green Line. This is accomplished by transferring ownership of real estate to the state and its various agencies, or to private individuals and companies involved in settlement activity in East Jerusalem, mainly through the Guardian General apparatus, which allows only Jews to claim land that was Jewish-owned prior to 1948.

Tracking SOLT proceedings by Bimkom and Ir Amim demonstrates that since the process was resumed in 2018 through August 2025, SOLT was initiated for 7,900 dunams (approximately 1,952 acres). This area represents about one-fifth of previously unregistered land (land whose status was either unsettled or undergoing settlement). Of these, SOLT has been completed in 46 blocs covering 2,200 dunams (approximately 544 acres).​

A Bimkom analysis of finalized ownership registration figures shows that plans for settlements were being pursued in tandem with SOLT in much of the land that has been registered through this process and located in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods. In other words, the resumption of SOLT in East Jerusalem, presented as a means of improving living conditions for Palestinians and protecting their rights, actually serves as another tool for dispossessing Palestinians and driving them out of the city. Of the land registered so far, only one percent has been registered under Palestinian owners. Another 42% is located in Israeli neighborhoods or used for city-wide infrastructure and is irrelevant to Palestinian neighborhoods; a further 40% has been registered to the state (or state agencies), the Jewish National Fund, or the Jerusalem Municipality; and 5% has been registered to private or commercial Jewish owners, often with the intervention of the Guardian General’s office, which sometimes even initiates the planning. In July 2025, the High Court of Justice rejected a petition by Ir Amim and Bimkom challenging the Guardian General’s authority to initiate planning in East Jerusalem (HCJ 2623/24).

Cross-referencing SOLT maps with building plans currently being promoted in East Jerusalem reveals that most of the lands settled so far are in areas targeted for new settlements, or where settlements already exist. Eight completed blocs are inside Palestinian neighborhoods and slated for new settlement construction with thousands of housing units for Jewish residents.

For further reading, see Bimkom’s July 2025 report: Land Registration = Land Confiscation: Analysis of land registration in East Jerusalem 2018–2024

Dispossession and expulsion through settlement expansion

As of July 2025, 14 new settlements are planned in East Jerusalem: legal plans for four of these (Givat HaMatos, where construction has already begun; Givat HaShaked; Amat HaMayim; and East Har Homa) have already been approved, while ten more are in various stages of approval. Collectively, these settlements comprise approximately 10,000 housing units that have already been authorized, as well as plans for an additional 17,000 units. In addition, there are numerous projects to increase density in existing Jewish neighborhoods beyond the Green Line, typically through urban renewal projects.

At least five Palestinian communities are currently at risk of displacement: Batan al-Hawa and al-Bustan (Silwan), Sheikh Jarrah, Umm Tuba, and Nu’man. In 2024, seven families were evicted from Batan al-Hawa, and applications for leave to appeal made by many other families to the Supreme Court were dismissed. In 2025, six additional families from Batan al-Hawa, comprising a total of 31 members, face immediate eviction from their homes.

Sheikh Jarrah: For approximately five decades, settler organizations supported by the state have sought, using various means, to take over houses in Sheikh Jarrah. In 2025, under the banner of urban renewal, two residential projects slated to house about 2,000 Jewish families have been promoted in the neighborhood. There is genuine concern that these plans will lead to the evacuation of the Umm Haroun complex and the expulsion of dozens of Palestinian families from their homes. Another plan includes the establishment of an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva on a plot expropriated by the Jerusalem Municipality, purportedly to serve local residents. At the same time, as already seen in Silwan, the state is taking possession of public spaces in the neighborhood and allocating major funding to develop Israeli religious and national projects in them.

These government projects threaten to transform Sheikh Jarrah from a neighborhood organically connected to the surrounding Palestinian urban fabric of the Old City into an Israeli settlement that severs the core of Palestinian Jerusalem from its northern sectors, leaving behind a handful of small, embattled Palestinian enclaves.

For a comprehensive analysis, see Ir Amim’s July 2025 report: A Stranglehold on Sheikh Jarrah–New Tools for Israeli Takeover and Palestinian Displacement