UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday condemned the Israeli government, after it approved the initiation of the process of land registration in Judea and Samaria, for the first time since 1967.
According to the decision, passed on Sunday, the Land Registration and Rights Authority in the Ministry of Justice will be authorized to carry out the regulatory procedures and will be allocated a dedicated budget and staff for this purpose.
This means, among other things, the registration of large areas in Judea and Samaria belonging to the state under its name.
"The Secretary-General condemns the Israeli government’s Feb. 15 decision to resume land registration procedures in Area C of the occupied West Bank, following a cabinet decision in May 2025," said Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric in response to the decision.
"Such measures, including Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, are not only destabilizing but, as recalled by the International Court of Justice, unlawful," Dujarric said.
Calling on Israel to "immediately reverse these measures," the spokesman added that Guterres had warned that "the current trajectory on the ground is eroding the prospect for the two-State solution."
"The Secretary-General reiterates that all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have no legal validity and are in flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN resolutions," Dujarric stated.
Guterres, already known for his anti-Israel bias, has increased his criticism of Israel since the October 7, 2023 massacre carried out by the Hamas terrorist organization in southern Israel.
Several weeks after October 7, the UN Secretary-General said that the attack on Israel “did not happen in a vacuum" and appeared to blame Israel for the attack.
After his remarks were widely condemned, the UN chief claimed his comments were misinterpreted and that he had indeed condemned Hamas.
In October of 2024, then-Foreign Minister Israel Katz - now Defense Minister - announced that Guterres had been barred from entering Israel.
More recently, Guterres condemned Israel for demolishing the Jerusalem compound of UNRWA, the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees".
In response, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein reposted the condemnation on social media, attaching a video documenting Hamas terrorist Mohammad Marwan Abu Itiwi taking Israeli hostages on October 7, 2023, together with a screenshot of an UNRWA list showing that Itiwi was an UNRWA driver, together with his employee number.
“Was this your UNRWA Employee of the Month?" wrote Marmorstein.