The era of the two-state solution is over, after the Knesset approved a law legitimising settlement blocs, Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport, Miri Regev, said.

The minister told Public Radio Israel yesterday that “the era of the two-state solution has ended.”

The official from the Likud party, headed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “We will impose the law on Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] in the event that this it rejected by the Supreme Court.”

Read: Reports: Israel approves construction of 1,162 settlement units in West Bank



She noted that the law was approved “no thanks to the Jewish Home party, but because PM Benjamin Netanyahu wanted it.”

Right-wing party, the Jewish Home, headed by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, had said that the law was approved following its support. This law legitimises thousands of residential settlement units, 53 settlement blocs, and legalises the confiscation of 2,100 acres of Palestinian land in the West Bank.

The Palestinians have said that the implementation of this law would mean the end of the two-state solution.

Read: ‘Two-state solution is dying,’ say Euro MPs



A number of Arab and Western countries criticised and condemned Israel after the law was approved.

The Palestinians filed a petition with the Supreme Court, the highest judicial authority in Israel, in order to abolish the new law. The court instructed Israel to submit its position on this petition within a month.