Israel’s ‘Blue Line’ Team Accelerates West Bank Land Confiscations

AL-MUGHAYYIR, West Bank – With the October olive harvest looming, Bilal Abu Alia watches over a fraction of his family’s former territory in the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah. What was once 0.4 square kilometers (100 acres) of ancestral land has been largely reduced to a small perimeter surrounding his home and a handful of surviving olive trees, following actions by Israeli authorities.

Abu Alia’s experience illustrates a broader mechanism used to consolidate control over the occupied West Bank. Rather than immediate physical seizure, land confiscation often begins with bureaucratic and cartographic adjustments. The Israeli Civil Administration’s “Blue Line Team,” comprised of surveyors, cartographers, and legal experts, plays a central role in this process by identifying and formally designating areas as “state land.”

According to a mid-September report by the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements, an organization affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization, the team was established in 1999. Utilizing modern geographic information systems, the group reviews and redraws boundaries on official maps. While Israel’s Civil Administration describes these revisions as technical corrections of historical surveying errors, the United Nations has noted that the changes have effectively expanded the scope of land classified as Israeli state property.

The report argues that the Blue Line team has transitioned from a neutral demarcation body into an instrument for accelerating settlement expansion and legitimizing unauthorized outposts. Recently, the team reclassified approximately 0.2 square kilometers (49 acres) in the northern and central West Bank—previously designated as state land—to areas allocated for settlement activity. This reclassification impacts land belonging to the Palestinian villages of Jalud, Qaryut, Turmusayya, and al-Mughayyir.

In al-Mughayyir, tensions escalated in August 2025 after an Israeli settler was shot while encroaching on Palestinian property. Israeli forces subsequently conducted a four-day operation during which bulldozers uprooted thousands of olive trees across the village, including those on Abu Alia’s family land.

“We were informed that we were barred from accessing this land, that it had become a military zone and then state land. We watched as the olive trees planted by my great-grandfather a century ago were bulldozed and uprooted right before our eyes, yet we were powerless to stop it,” Abu Alia told Al Jazeera. He noted that although the area was initially declared a closed military zone excluding both Palestinians and settlers, a settler was soon seen plowing the land with army protection. When the family attempted to collect debris from the uprooted trees in December 2025, Abu Alia, his father, and his elderly uncle were arrested, handcuffed, blindfolded, and held for three days at an army camp.

The family’s attempt to legally challenge the confiscation was hindered by a strict three-day deadline to file objections, which arrived after bulldozers had already begun operations. Abu Alia stated that settlers continue to access surrounding lands while his family is denied farming rights.

The implications of these boundary changes extend beyond cartography. Reclassifying land as “state land” clears the path for construction projects and settlement growth. In the northern West Bank, this trend accompanies the expansion of settlements around Jenin. The National Bureau highlighted recent military seizure orders affecting land near Qabatiya, where two orders confiscated nearly 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles or 3,500 acres) of property belonging to Qabatiya and surrounding areas.

Raed Moqadi, a researcher at the Land Research Center, indicated that Blue Line team activities intensified in 2026. He noted that while the Palestinian Authority has lodged objections with various international bodies, these diplomatic efforts have not halted the physical measures on the ground.

Salah al-Khawaja, a senior official with the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, described the Blue Line team’s work as part of an integrated system involving settlements, pastoral outposts, settler roads, the separation wall, and military zones. He linked these actions to a political agenda aimed at entrenching Israeli control over Area C, the portion of the West Bank under full Israeli military and administrative authority, consistent with a plan outlined by now-Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in 2017.

Al-Khawaja added that the legal framework further supports these outcomes, noting that the majority of land disputes handled by his commission are decided in favor of settlers, and Israeli Supreme Court rulings no longer provide sufficient protection for Palestinians.

For residents like Adnan Kmail, 62, the consequences are immediate and severe. Kmail said Israeli forces confiscated 0.1 square kilometers (25 acres) of his family’s land and destroyed olive trees over 60 years old to make way for an army outpost. He learned of the seizure through the local municipality rather than via formal written notice.

Kmail’s family, comprising more than 70 people, previously earned income from the land, which produced approximately 5,000 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of olive oil annually. “We didn’t file an objection because we knew it would be futile. We can’t even go near the land; just a few days ago, soldiers shot a man in the leg simply for passing through the area,” Kmail said. “My heart aches whenever I think of my land.”

Al Jazeera sought comment from Israeli authorities regarding these practices but had not received a response at the time of publication.