ISRAEL - Land Registration Will ‘Bring Order’

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

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalal Smotrich said the land registry would continue “the settlement and governance revolution across all parts of our land” as he referenced Judea and Samaria, the biblical term for the West Bank.

Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and subsequently began establishing Jewish settlements there.

This latest measure comes after Israel’s security cabinet approved a move that expanded Israeli rule and governance over the West Bank. The move drew international condemnation, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling it as a flagrant violation of international law and the European Union saying it is a “step in the wrong direction.”

-www.cnn.com, 16 February 2026

Commentary: When reading the various reports about Israel’s territory and Palestinian territory, there is a vast difference in understanding.

The Arab Palestinians argue that European Jews fleeing the Holocaust aggressively occupied Palestinian land. Israel answered: “Israel disputes the illegality of its settlements, claiming that Israeli citizens were neither deported nor transferred to the territories, that the territory is not occupied since there had been no internationally recognized legal sovereign prior, and that the Fourth Geneva Convention does not de jure apply” (en.wikipedia.org).

How many Arab Palestinians, mostly immigrants from neighboring countries, resided in Ottoman Palestine?

“Ottoman-era baseline: Ottoman censuses and estimates put the Arab (Muslim + Christian) population of Palestine around 600,000–700,000 in the late 19th / very early 20th century” (www.quora.com).

A quick Google search reveals that today, 5.9 to 8 million Palestinians consider themselves “refugees.”

If we allow many other sources to air their opinion, it becomes a whole spectacle and impossible to define the situation.

For Bible readers, this is not surprising. Realizing that some countries look somewhat favorably toward Israel, yet none—and we emphasize, absolutely none—would agree to Israel’s right to take possession of the land according to God’s unconditional covenant with Abram:

“In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (Gensis 15:18). We must also notice the words, “have I given this land.” That is in the past tense; in plain words, it’s really a done deal but awaits fulfillment.

(See The Israel Decree, Item #2433, $8.99.)