By the 50th anniversary of Land Day, Palestinians lose most of their land

It was a devastating experience for Abdul Rahman Azzam, 65, to recently cut down the olive trees he had planted decades ago on his land south of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, following an Israeli decision to confiscate it for the construction of a road for an illegal Israeli settlement.

The land slated for confiscation last December spans more than 513 dunams (51.3 hectares), 450 of which belong to the village of al-Fandaqumiya alone, with the remainder belonging to neighbouring towns such as Silat ad-Dhahr and al-Attarra.

As Palestinians commemorate the 50th anniversary of Land Day this year, the challenges of illegal Israeli settlement expansions, land confiscations, and restrictions on access to their land, particularly in Area C, persist.

Meanwhile, Israeli government leaders continue to declare that the annexation plan is a fait accompli.

Land Day commemorates the events of March 30, 1976, when Israeli authorities announced the confiscation of vast tracts of Palestinian land in the Galilee region.

In response, widespread strikes and demonstrations were organised in several towns and villages, which were met with force, resulting in the deaths of six Palestinians and the injury and arrest of hundreds.

Since then, this day has become a national symbol, embodying the connection of the Palestinians to their land and the rejection of its confiscation.

Twice taken

Since childhood, Azzam had worked alongside his father, grandfather, and uncles, planting and ploughing the land with olive trees.

He developed a deep connection to it, which he continued to work on until 2002, when the illegal Israeli settlement of Tarsala and the Sanur military base were established on it, and he and his family were barred from accessing it.

Following the 2005 disengagement plan, the Israeli army withdrew from the camp and the settlement of Tarsala. Azzam and other landowners returned to their land, and their joy was indescribable.

However, after the recent Israeli decision, the Palestinian landowners were denied access to their land, which is now entirely under Israeli military control.

“Suddenly, we found the land number in the official newspaper along with a confiscation order for the construction of a road connecting the settlements of Homesh and Tarsala, to which the settlers had returned after the 2005 withdrawal. We saw the Israeli army had already begun bulldozing the land,” Azzam told Al Jazeera.

To prevent the Israeli army from cutting down his olive trees during the bulldozing, Azzam went to his land and cut them down himself. He wept as he did so. He then noticed that all the other landowners had done the same, fearing for their trees.

“It’s easier for us to cut them down ourselves than for the army or settlers to do it. This is our land, and our trees are like our children; we cherish them and treat them with kindness because we toiled to cultivate and care for them,” he added.

Confiscation in several ways

The Oslo Accords, signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, divided the West Bank into three categories: Area A, under full Palestinian control, comprising approximately 18 percent of the West Bank; Area B, under joint Palestinian and Israeli control, comprising 22 percent; and Area C, under full Israeli control, comprising 60 percent.

Since October 2023, Israel has been issuing confiscation orders for Palestinian lands in Area C at an accelerated pace in the West Bank, in preparation for implementing its annexation plan, which Palestinians believe is already being carried out on the ground without a formal declaration.

According to data from the Palestinian Authority’s Commission Against the Wall and Settlements, Israel seized 5,572 dunams of Palestinian land in 2025 through 94 confiscation orders for military purposes, in addition to three expropriation orders and four declarations of state land.

These orders were not isolated or circumstantial, but rather geographically distributed to serve the expansion of settlements, secure their borders, and construct settlement roads that further fragment Palestinian land and sever its natural contiguity, as it said.

Concurrently, Israel allocated 16,733 dunams of previously confiscated land for settler grazing, a move that reveals a dangerous escalation in the tools of control, according to the commission’s annual report.

In another report, the commission stated that between October 2023 and October 2025, Israel confiscated 55,000 dunams of land, including 20,000 dunams under the pretext of modifying the boundaries of nature reserves, and 26,000 dunams through 14 declarations of “state land” in the cities of Jerusalem, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Qalqilya.

A total of 1,756 dunams were confiscated through 108 orders for military purposes, aimed at establishing military towers, security roads, and buffer zones around settlements.

However, it has become increasingly apparent that many land seizures are carried out without official military orders. Soldiers or settlers prevent Palestinian landowners from accessing their land, leaving them surprised to find it seized without any prior notification.

Mohammed Fouad, 56, was surprised on Wednesday to find an Israeli army bulldozer razing his land in the town of Ein Yabrud, east of Ramallah.

He went to the nearest point to the land and watched as the bulldozer removed trees, seemingly clearing a road for settlers.

“My land is 15 dunams … and is only 1km from the Beit El settlement, which is built on land north of Ramallah. I fear this bulldozing is a prelude to its annexation to the settlement, especially since it’s classified as Area C,” Fouad told Al Jazeera.

He was not notified of any decision regarding the confiscation of his land. A farmer who was nearby informed him of it. When he tried to inquire with the armed men accompanying the bulldozer, they told him they were from the Israeli army and intelligence services and expelled him from his land.

“I’ve always cared for this land, and now I’m watching it being bulldozed right before my eyes, unable to reach it. It’s as if they’re forcing me to leave. But I’ll try to reach it every day,” Fouad said bitterly.

Land confiscation procedures have been facilitated by several Israeli policies over the past two years to complete the annexation plan.

Raed Muqadi, a researcher at the Land Research Centre, told Al Jazeera that settlers have resorted to fencing off Palestinian lands to seize them, especially in the Jordan Valley.

This has affected thousands of dunams in the occupied West Bank that were used as pastures or agricultural land. Because of the fencing, Palestinians are prevented from entering or using it.

“The Israeli Knesset also recently approved what is called lifting the ban on data concerning landowners in the West Bank, which makes it easier for settlers to seize land and allows them to purchase it, even in Area A, with the help of settlement associations,” he explained.

Actual expulsion

The tragedy is not limited to land confiscation and seizure in the West Bank, but extends to the expulsion of entire Palestinian communities from their homes under the weight of attacks.

Qusay Abu Naim, 23, a resident of the Bedouin community of al-Khalail in the village of al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah, told us that he and all other residents were forced to leave in February due to the intensity of settler attacks on the residents, some of whom were injured.

On February 21, Israeli settlers attacked the community intermittently, assaulting men, women, and children, resulting in injuries to an entire family of four, including two children. The Israeli army then joined the attack after the settlers filed a complaint that the Palestinians had resisted them. The soldiers opened fire, wounding the children, aged 12 and 13, further.

“This incident was the last straw. We decided to leave because the attacks were almost constant. When we returned from the hospital to dismantle our homes, we were shocked to find that the settlers had destroyed them and vandalised their contents,” Abu Naim explained.

The attacks against this community began in December 2024, intending to seize the lands of al-Mughayyir. The settlers deliberately targeted women, beating them and stealing sheep to force the residents to leave.

“Because of the numerous attacks, we sought help from international solidarity activists, but that didn’t stop the settlers. The activists were attacked several times in 2024 and 2025. Among the attacks, settlers broke my brother’s arm so severely that he needed a metal plate to repair the fracture. While he was receiving treatment, the Israeli army arrested him, even though he was the victim. He is currently being held in administrative detention without charge,” Abu Naim added.

In addition to the attacks, the homes of this community were repeatedly robbed by armed settlers. They would break into the houses and steal food from refrigerators, terrorising women and children.

The residents of the community were forced to leave for neighbouring villages, including Deir Jarir and areas within al-Mughayyir itself, but they still remember the years when they lived there in their communities, amid a beautiful Bedouin life, the images of which remain with them to this day, and they lament leaving it.

“Of course, it is now forbidden for any Palestinian to access the al-Khalail community area, which is under the control of settlers and the Israeli army. We left it, but the land will return to its original owners,” he concluded.

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 4,765 Palestinians were displaced from 97 locations between January 2023 and mid-February 2026 due to settler violence.

Most of those displaced were from Bedouin and herding communities in Area C. At the beginning of this year alone, 600 people were forced to leave a single Bedouin village, Ras Ein al-Auja, in the Jordan Valley.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the number of Palestinian Bedouins in the West Bank is approximately 40,000. Most Bedouins are originally from the Naqab Desert, from which they were forcibly displaced or fled during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, following further displacement after 1967, and then throughout the 1980s, they have continued to face waves of expulsion to this day.