The land registration process will apply to Area C of the occupied West Bank, which is under complete Israeli control.

Israel is beginning a land registration process in the occupied West Bank that critics say can shift large areas into state control.

Israeli rights groups say land registration in West Bank will further Israel’s aim of annexing Palestinian territory.

For the first time since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, the government will create a mechanism to officially register large swaths of land under the state.

The government has approved the proposal by Ministers Levin, Smotrich, and Katz to renew land registration procedures in Judea and Samaria after decades.