JERUSALEM -- Israel's parliament passed a contentious law late Monday that allows the state to seize land privately owned by Palestinians in the West Bank and grant the properties to Jewish settlements for their exclusive use.
The measure is designed to protect homes in Jewish settlements, built on private Palestinian property "in good faith or at the state's instruction," from possible court-ordered evacuation and demolition. Thousands of homes in dozens of settlements and outposts may now be protected, at least temporarily.
The bill passed 60-52 in Israel's 120-member Knesset after a raucous debate in which opposition lawmakers shouted from their seats at governing coalition lawmakers speaking in favor of the vote from the dais.
"We are voting tonight on our right to the land," Cabinet minister Ofir Akunis said 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."
The law allows the government to hold the land until there is a final resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Palestinian landowners could apply to the state for annual rents or be given another parcel.
Critics condemned the bill as reckless and warned that it would turn the world against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on a trip to London that he was ready to move ahead with the law and had informed officials in President Donald Trump's administration about the vote.
"We do not surprise our friends and we keep them updated," Netanyahu told reporters. "The American administration has been updated."
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 an Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Netanyahu had delayed the vote until after the departure of President Barack Obama, whose administration was strongly critical of Israeli settlement-building on land it won in the 1967 Middle East War. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Netanyahu wanted to delay the vote further until he could discuss settlements with Trump in Washington next week, but the vote was pushed by pro-settlement parties in his government.
Thousands of Israelis live in the unauthorized enclaves. In addition, Israel has built more than 120 authorized West Bank settlements, housing about 400,000 people, that it considers legal and that most countries don't. Israeli troops last week evacuated one outpost of some 40 homes that wasn't grandfathered under the current legislation.
Netanyahu's attorney general has called the bill unconstitutional and said he won't defend it in Israel's Supreme Court if it is challenged.
A member of the parliament in Netanyahu's own Likud party -- Benny Begin, son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin -- labeled it "the robbery bill."
Another Likud legislator, former justice minister Dan Meridor, condemned the bill as "evil and dangerous."
Meridor, a lawyer, warned the Israeli parliament that the West Bank remains under a "belligerent occupation" 50 years after Israel won the territory from Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Palestinians who live in the territory are not Israeli citizens.
If Israel's parliament legislates for the Palestinians -- rather than control them by military rule -- then Palestinians would have the right to become citizens and vote in Israel, Meridor argued.
"Don't cross a line we've never crossed before," Meridor pleaded with his fellow legislators in a newspaper column. "No government in Israel has applied its sovereignty to the West Bank."
The Palestinian Authority said the measure was "an illegal land grab." Former Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat compared the Israelis to "looters."
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the law "would only lead to more instability and chaos. It is unacceptable. It is denounced and the international community should act immediately."
The settlement legalization measure was pushed by Naftali Bennett, the education minister and leader of the Jewish Home party, who opposes granting the Palestinians a state and instead wants to annex to Israel the 60 percent of the West Bank where the Jewish settlements are located.
Bennett, a religious nationalist, said the bill seeks to "normalize" life for the settlers and allow them to remain in homes that the state has encouraged them to build, while providing roads, water, power and protection by the army.
After the bill passed, Bennett tweeted just one word: "Revolution."
Shuli Moalem-Refaeli, one of the bill's sponsors, called it "a historic achievement and a strategic event for the settlement movement. It's another step in normalizing the lives of thousands of citizens. The fate of thousands of homes will no longer be dependent on the whims of left-wing organizations."
Bezalel Smotrich, a rightist lawmaker, used biblical names for the West Bank in his praise for the new law.
"Today Israel decreed that developing settlement in Judea and Samaria is an Israeli interest," Smotrich said. "From here we move on to expanding Israeli sovereignty and continuing to build and develop settlements across the land."
Information for this article was contributed by William Booth and Ruth Eglash of The Washington Post; by Tia Goldenberg, Bradley Klapper and Edith M. Lederer of The Associated Press; by David Wainer, Michael S. Arnold, Jonathan Ferziger and Fadwa Hodali of Bloomberg News; and by Ian Fisher and Isabel Kershner of The New York Times.
A Section on 02/07/2017