The issue of land use - spatial planning, control of land use and
land development - construction planning and permits, regulations and
implementation are inextricably linked in Area C of the West Bank. concerted
efforts to develop and through the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) system -
approve spatial plans in Area C have been ongoing and continue to improve in
terms of scope and level of coverage, complexity of issues addressed and
complementarity with higher order non-statutory planning instruments. The
spatial plans prepared distinguish between the public and private land and
incorporate these aspects in the participatory approach, but within the private
land in Area C, the plans do not consider specific ownership and registration issues.
This is an impediment to land development given that much of the public
facilities and infrastructure will inevitably utilize private land, such as sewerage,
storm water, and secondary roads and in many locales the lack of availability
of public land may require collaboration between owners for larger scale
investments. One pressing issue is of course the lack of registered land in
Area C and the complex registration process itself.
Firstly, Israeli Military Order No.291 of 1968 suspended land
registration in West bank, leaving at most 30 percent of land formally
registered. Secondly, and specifically for Area C, a complex and lengthy
process called " First registration “is required by the ICA and is too
costly and time consuming most Palestinians in Area C. A situation has arisen
then whereby land ownership and use rights in Area C are incredibly complicated
to discern and resolve. In effect, implementation of the action plans prepared
through spatial planning process, and land development in general would be
greatly enhanced with a more thorough integration of a community driven process
to determine ownership and use rights.
Further such as an approach would assist in putting communities on
a pathway for land registration, and sync and harmonize on-going land titling
process in Areas A and B. Such a model exists and has been developed and
implemented by UN-Habitat globally- it is called the Social Tenure Domain Model
(STDM). STDM is a pro-poor, gender responsive, participatory, and affordable land
information system that is based on both a process and software, which is free
and open source, where all data collected and stored are owned by the users.
STDM Methodology is based on recording and analyzing the social tenure relationship
of people and land as well as the social services/amenities that the
inhabitants of a certain location can access. The STDM methodology supports the
concept of the continuum of land rights- recognition of legitimate forms of
tenure ranging from formal to informal land rights. This approach has been
supported by the Palestinian Authority and development partners in the
"Road Map for Reforming Palestinian Land Sector" of 2017.
Furthermore, development partners have voiced their support to initiatives
related to community mapping of land rights in the Aid Policy Forum organized
by UNSCO and the World Bank in June 2017. Within this context, UN-Habitat
reached an understanding with the Palestinian Water and Land Settlement Commission
(LWSC) that was established by the Palestinian Cabinet in February 2016 to
accelerate systemic land registration, including the process of land titling at
the local level, including Area C. To this end, it is proposed to conduct an
on-the-job training with LWSC on STDM applications, using an Arabic interface
to provide fir for purpose interventions within the context of Palestinian
vulnerable groups in Area C.
