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		</div><p>A new Israeli law legalising dozens of unlawful West Bank settler outposts crossed a &#8220;very thick red line&#8221;, the United Nations&#8217; Middle East envoy has said.</p>
<p>Israeli rights groups have said they will fight to overturn the measure in the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>The explosive law, approved by Israeli politicians late on Monday night, was the latest in a series of pro-settler steps taken by Israel&#8217;s hard-line government since the election of Donald Trump as US president.</p>
<p>It is expected to trigger a number of challenges in the Supreme Court, while members of the international community have already begun to condemn it.</p>
<p>The law legalised dozens of outpost homes built unlawfully on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Critics say the legislation enshrines into law the theft of Palestinian land.<br />
It also marked the first time that the Israeli parliament has imposed Israeli law on Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank.</p>
<p>The area, captured by Israel in 1967, is not sovereign Israeli territory and Palestinians there are not Israeli citizens and do not have the right to vote.</p>
<p>Nickolay Mladenov, the UN&#8217;s co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process, said the legislation &#8220;opens the floodgates to the potential annexation of the West Bank&#8221;.</p>
<p>If Israel moves to solidify its control over the area, it would imperil the internationally backed idea of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel as part of a negotiated peace deal, he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;It will have a drastic legal consequence for Israel and for the nature of its democracy,&#8221; Mr Mladenov said.</p>
<p>&#8220;It crosses a very, very thick red line.&#8221;<br />
Britain&#8217;s minister for the Middle East, Tobias Ellwood, condemned the law, saying it &#8220;damages Israel&#8217;s standing with its international partners&#8221;.</p>
<p>He spoke a day after Israel&#8217;s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, met with British Prime Minister Theresa May in London.</p>
<p>The law also cast a cloud over a visit to Israel by Turkey&#8217;s tourism minister.<br />
Israel and Turkey recently repaired ties after a six-year rift, and the tourism minister, Nabi Avci, was visiting as part of that reconciliation.</p>
<p>Asked about the law, Mr Avci said he hoped Israel&#8217;s Supreme Court would strike it down.<br />
&#8220;I think, I hope, that on this issue, the high court will make the right decision, a decision in accordance with international law, a decision in accordance with United Nations decisions,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Mr Netanyahu&#8217;s nationalist coalition is dominated by West Bank settlers and their allies.<br />
After repeated clashes with then US president Barack Obama, they have grown emboldened by the election of Mr Trump, who has signalled that he will take a much softer approach towards the settlements than his predecessors or the rest of the international community.</p>
<p>The law was &#8220;a first step in a series of measures that we must take in order to make our presence in Judea and Samaria present for years, for decades, for ages&#8221;, said Israeli cabinet minister Yariv Levin, using the biblical name for the West Bank.</p>
<p>&#8220;I do believe that our right over our fatherland is something that cannot be denied.&#8221;<br />
Since Mr Trump took office last month, Israel has announced plans to build more than 6,000 settler homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem &#8211; occupied territories claimed by the Palestinians.</p>
<p>After ignoring a string of Israeli announcements, the Trump White House last week finally said that settlements &#8220;may not be helpful&#8221; for peace.</p>
<p>But after the law was passed late on Monday, it said only that it would wait for Israel&#8217;s courts to rule on the legislation before taking a stance.</p>
<p>Prominent Israeli human rights groups plan to ask the Supreme Court to strike it down.<br />
A number of prominent legal experts have said the law will not survive a judicial review, and even Mr Netanyahu&#8217;s own attorney general has refused to defend it in court.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s going to be a legal battle against this bill,&#8221; said Lior Amihai, spokesman for Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group.</p>
<p>He said his group was already preparing its legal challenge, but that it could take about two weeks to file the case.</p>
<p>Mr Netanyahu also expressed misgivings about the law, reportedly saying that it could invite international legal actions against Israel.</p>
<p>But under heavy pressure from the Jewish Home party, a coalition partner linked to the settler movement, he reversed course and allowed the bill to pass.</p>
<p>Mr Netanyahu was flying home from London late on Monday and missed the vote.</p>
<p>Naftali Bennett, head of the Jewish Home party, told Israel&#8217;s Army Radio on Tuesday that the goal of the bill was to create the same conditions in the settlements as in Israel proper.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the end of the day, behind all the talk there is a simple question: what do we want for the future of Israel?&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>The Palestinians, meanwhile, have also condemned the vote and urged the international community to punish Israel.</p>
<p>&#8220;Nobody can legalise the theft of the Palestinian lands. Building settlements is a crime, building settlements is against all international laws,&#8221; said Palestinian tourism and antiquities minister Rula Maayaa.<br />
&#8220;I think it is time now for the international community to act concretely to stop the Israelis from these crimes.&#8221;</p>
<p>The vote passed 60-52 in Israel&#8217;s 120-member Knesset.<br />
The raucous debate saw opposition politicians shouting from their seats at governing coalition politicians speaking in favour of the vote.</p>
<p>Some spectators in visitors&#8217; seats raised a black cloth in apparent protest.</p>
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if there are negotiations to end the war there?