The Israeli government approved a new law requiring landowners in Area C of the West Bank to prove ownership or risk transferring the land to the state. The Israeli NGO Bimkom views this measure as a disguised form of annexation, unprecedented since 1967, which violates international law and Palestinian rights. The process for proving ownership is deemed nearly impossible for many Palestinians due to scattered archives and stringent requirements, potentially leading to land being declared 'state property'. This land, once declared state property, is often indirectly transferred to settlers, furthering the 'settlement revolution' applauded by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The move contradicts recent statements by US President Donald Trump, who opposed the rush to build settlements and take Palestinian land.
16 days ago
Israel's government approved a law on February 19, 2026, requiring landowners in Area C of the West Bank to prove ownership or risk state seizure.1 This targets 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control, affecting 3.3 million dunams, with 58% (1.9 million dunams) unregistered.1
The process, frozen since 1967, involves the IDF Central Command authorizing land registry work, with initial funding near $1 million and new jobs created.1 Critics call it a "mega theft" enabling settler expansion.1
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hailed it as advancing the "settlement revolution" and ensuring "legal certainty" in Judea and Samaria.1 The measure, backed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Defense Minister Israel Katz, follows recent steps like lifting bans on land sales to Israeli Jews.1
It aligns with Netanyahu's policy against a Palestinian state, viewed as a security threat.1
Bimkom-Planning and Human Rights labels it an "illegal exercise of sovereignty" violating international law, akin to apartheid and frozen post-1967 procedures.1 Michal Braier notes it consolidates annexation, defying ICJ's 2024 opinion on East Jerusalem cases.1
Peace Now warns it deceives U.S. President Trump, who opposed annexation days earlier, transferring vast Area C lands to the state despite Palestinian documentation challenges.1
The Palestinian Authority decries it as a "serious escalation" breaching international law.1 Hamas calls it a "null and void" Judaization attempt.1
Condemnations came from Jordan, Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt.1
Area C, per Oslo Accords, hosts over 300,000 Palestinians but remains Israeli-controlled.1 The law revives "Solt" processes after May 2025 orders, December contracts, and a rejected Supreme Court petition.1
Experts warn it precludes political solutions, exacerbates conflict, and denies Palestinian self-determination and dignified development.1
Assess Catholic teaching on state sovereignty and property rights
Catholic teaching robustly affirms the right to private property as rooted in natural law and human dignity, yet consistently subordinates it to the universal destination of goods and the common good through a "social mortgage." Simultaneously, the Church recognizes state sovereignty—whether national or popular—as legitimate but inherently limited, subject to divine law, moral principles, and the rights of individuals, societies, and the Church herself. These doctrines intersect such that the state may regulate property for the sake of justice but cannot unjustly expropriate it or override fundamental rights.
The Catholic tradition views private property not as an absolute or inviolable claim but as a secondary natural right derived from God's gift of creation for the sustenance of all humanity. As Pope Francis reiterates in Fratelli Tutti, "the Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute or inviolable, and has stressed the social purpose of all forms of private property." This principle of the common use of created goods serves as "the first principle of the whole ethical and social order," taking priority over particular property claims. Saint John Paul II's teaching, echoed here, emphasizes that "God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favouring anyone."
This framework introduces the concept of a social mortgage on all property, including intellectual property, ensuring that ownership fulfills basic human needs rather than serving profit alone. Pope Pius XI, through John Paul II's lens, taught that private property bears "a social mortgage... in order that goods may serve the general purpose that God gave them." Human industry allows individuals to appropriate unowned goods for orderly life, granting a natural right antecedent to the state. However, this right is not unlimited: "the right to life and limb, the essential freedom... the right to marry or remain single, such rights as these may not be infringed by any human authority whatever," but property, while natural, admits regulation.
Historically, this evolved from St. Thomas Aquinas, who saw property division as a human addition for efficiency rather than a strict natural right, to Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum, grounding it in divine law (e.g., Deuteronomy 5:21). The Catholic Encyclopedia on Justice confirms: "The right thus to acquire property which is useful and necessary for an orderly human life, is one of man's natural rights, and it cannot be taken away by the State." Yet, positive law may modify it for the common good, as with minors or married women historically.
Catholic social doctrine affirms sovereignty as residing fundamentally in the people, who delegate it to representatives while retaining oversight. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine states: "The subject of political authority is the people considered in its entirety as those who have sovereignty." Democratic mechanisms best realize this, allowing evaluation and replacement of leaders. National sovereignty expresses a people's freedom in political, economic, and cultural dimensions, resisting domination. Pope John Paul II addressed diplomats: "whole peoples must be able effectively to enjoy rightful autonomy and independence and exercise them in national sovereignty, without outside interference."
Yet sovereignty is not absolute. Nations form a "family of nations" where mutual trust prevails, and they may renounce rights for common goals. The Magisterium calls for international agreements on "the rights of nations" to promote justice. Critically, state sovereignty bows to divine law and higher authorities, such as the Church's perfect society, independent of civil power. Pope Pius XI lamented Italy's failure to recognize papal sovereignty: "this sacred sovereignty must not be, neither must it ever appear to be, subject to any human authority or law whatsoever." The Church defends her autonomy to safeguard conscience and human spheres like family and nations.
The state, instituted to protect natural rights including property, wields authority to regulate them reasonably for the common good but cannot abrogate them entirely. As the Catholic Encyclopedia explains, "the State may indeed make reasonable laws regulating and defining the property rights of its subjects for the common good, but it cannot abrogate them altogether. Such rights are antecedent to the State." Unjust seizures, as in Portugal's deprivation of Church properties despite juridical titles, violate justice. "No regard is paid to the wishes of those making donations in wills; no account is taken of the spiritual and holy ends connected with such properties."
Property rights thus check state overreach, while the social mortgage empowers the state—or appropriate authority—to moderate them when conflicting with fundamental human rights. In intellectual property debates, "whenever there is a conflict between property rights... and fundamental human rights and concerns of the common good, property rights should be moderated by an appropriate authority." The Church's sovereignty exemplifies this balance, owning property independently as a moral person. Totalitarian tendencies arise when the state absorbs all spheres, imperiling property and freedom.
In summary, Catholic teaching harmonizes property rights and state sovereignty under the primacy of the common good and divine law: private property fosters human flourishing but serves all; state authority protects rights without usurping them, always subordinate to moral absolutes and the Church's mission. This nuanced vision counters both unchecked individualism and statism, promoting integral justice.