The Israeli parliament’s adoption of a law meant to retroactively legalize thousands of West Bank settlement homes is expected to trigger international outrage and a flurry of lawsuits against the measure.
The law, approved by lawmakers late on Monday, is the latest in a series of pro-settler steps taken by the Israeli government since the election of US President Donald Trump.
Trump is seen as more sympathetic to Israel’s settlement policies than former US president Barack Obama and the Israeli government has approved plans to build thousands of new homes on occupied territory since Trump took office.
“We are voting tonight on our right to the land,” Israeili Minister Ofir Akunis said during a debate ahead of the vote. “We are voting tonight on the connection between the Jewish people and its land. This whole land is ours. All of it.”
Critics say the legislation enshrines into law the theft of Palestinian land and it is expected to be challenged in Israel’s Supreme Court.
According to the law, Palestinian landowners would be compensated either with money or alternative land, even if they did not agree to give up their property.
The vote passed 60-52 in Israel’s 120-member Knesset following a debate in which opposition lawmakers shouted from their seats at governing coalition lawmakers speaking in favor of the vote.
Some legislators supportive of the law took pictures of the plenum during the vote, while some spectators in visitors’ seats raised a black cloth in apparent protest.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had voiced misgivings about the law in the lead-up to the vote, reportedly expressing concern that it could trigger international censure and saying he wanted to coordinate with the Trump administration before moving ahead.
He told reporters on a trip to London that he had updated Washington and was ready to move ahead with the law.
Netanyahu was on his way back from the trip and was not present for the vote.
The White House’s immediate response was to refer to its statement last week that said the construction of new settlements “may not be helpful” in achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace.
The US Department of State later said “the Trump administration will withhold comment on the legislation until the relevant court ruling.”
David Harris, chief executive of AJC, a global Jewish advocacy organization, said that “Israel’s High Court can and should reverse this misguided legislation” by Knesset ahead of Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump this month.
The parliament’s action “is misguided and likely to prove counterproductive to Israel’s core national interests,” Harris said in a statement.
Netanyahu’s attorney general has called the bill unconstitutional and said he would not defend it in the Supreme Court.
Critics have warned it could drag Israel into a legal battle at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, which is already pursuing a preliminary examination into settlements.
Among the law’s problematic elements is that the West Bank is not sovereign Israeli territory and that Palestinians who live there are not citizens and do not have the right to vote for the government that imposed the law on them.
Palestinians condemned the law.
“This is an escalation that would only lead to more instability and chaos. It is unacceptable. It is denounced and the international community should act immediately,” said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Netanyahu faced intense pressure from within his coalition, especially from the pro-settler Jewish Home party, to press ahead with the vote following the court-ordered evacuation last week of the Amona outpost found to have been built on private Palestinian land.
More than 40 settler families were forced to leave the 20-year-old outpost and on Monday construction vehicles demolished and removed the trailer homes that remained behind.
Meretz party leader Zehava Galon wrote on Facebook ahead of the vote that Netanyahu “declares that the legalization bill is dangerous for Israel and instead of standing on his hind legs to stop this shameful law, he presses ahead with it.”
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