Israel-based advocacy groups Legal Center for Arab Rights and the Jerusalem Center for Human Rights and Legal Aid [advocacy websites] asked the Israeli Supreme Court [official website] Wednesday to review a new law that retroactively legalizes some 4,000 settlements in the West Bank. The bill, initially approved in December [JURIST report], received the final votes in needed in the Knesset [official website] on Tuesday. Though there is a possibility that the law will be overturned [NYT report] in court, the passage represents a political accomplishment for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [official profile], who has advocated Israeli settlement [Reuters report].

While Israel and Palestine have a troubled past [HRW backgrounder], the issue of settlements in the West Bank have escalated tensions in the last decade. Iin November Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation unanimously approved [JURIST report] the Formalization Bill to legalize the West Bank outposts. In March the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said [JURIST report] that the office is concerned about the apparent extra-judicial execution of a Palestinian man in the West Bank. In January Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged [JURIST report] businesses to cease operations in Israel settlements. In August 2015 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged both sides of the conflict [JURIST report] to reconcile and move towards peace after an attack occurred in the West Bank village of Duma, where Jewish extremists allegedly set fire to a Palestinian home while a family slept inside. Last April HRW alleged [HRW report] that Israeli settlement farmers in the occupied West Bank are using Palestinian child laborers in dangerous conditions in violation of international laws.