The Israeli Knesset on Monday passed a law that would legalise the expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land, a move critics warned would mark the first step toward annexation of parts of the West Bank, while paving the way for possible future prosecution of Israel for war crimes.
In a late-evening vote, MPs ignored warnings from opposition centre-left lawmakers and the UN and passed second and third readings of the Regularisation Bill, which will legalise retroactively some 55 Jewish settler outposts scattered around the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinians want to build their future state.
International law views all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and, until now, such outposts were illegal under Israeli law as well as they are built on private land on which Palestinians have claims.