Palestinian laborers work at a construction site in a new housing project in the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, near Jerusalem, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017. A Palestinian Cabinet minister on Tuesday called on the international community to punish Israel for a contentious new law, just hours after the Israeli parliament adopted the bill to retroactively legalize thousands of West Bank settlement homes built unlawfully on private Palestinian land.(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Palestinian laborers work at a construction site in a new housing project in the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, near Jerusalem, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017. A Palestinian Cabinet minister on Tuesday called on the international community to punish Israel for a contentious new law, just hours after the Israeli parliament adopted the bill to retroactively legalize thousands of West Bank settlement homes built unlawfully on private Palestinian land.(AP Photo/Oded Balilty) Credit: ap photograph

Jerusalem — A new Israeli law legalizing dozens of unlawfully built West Bank settlement outposts came under heavy criticism on Tuesday from some of Israel’s closest allies, as local rights groups prepared to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the measure.

Amid the uproar, the Trump administration remained quiet about the law — paving the way for further possible action by emboldened Israeli hard-liners ahead of a trip to the White House by Israel’s prime minister next week.

The law was “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,” Israeli Cabinet Minister Yariv Levin said, using the biblical name for the West Bank. “I do believe that our right over our fatherland is something that cannot be denied.”

The law, passed late Monday, sets out to legalize dozens of West Bank settler outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land. Proponents claimed the communities, home to thousands of people and in some cases decades old, were built in “good faith” and quietly backed by a string of Israeli governments.

But critics said the law amounts to legalized land theft. They also said it is legally problematic by imposing Israeli law on occupied land that is not sovereign Israeli territory and where its Palestinian residents do not have citizenship or the right to vote.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as parts of a future independent state. Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements illegal and counterproductive to peace. Some 600,000 Israelis now live in the two areas.

In Paris, Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the law puts “the last nail in the coffin of the two-state solution” and accused the Israeli government of “trying to legalize looting Palestinian land.”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed “deep regret” over the bill, saying it was “in contravention of international law and will have far-reaching legal consequences for Israel.”

Some of Israel’s closest allies, including Germany, Britain and the Czech Republic, also condemned the legislation.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry said its faith in Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution was “deeply shaken.”

Britain’s minister for the Middle East, Tobias Ellwood, said the law “damages Israel’s standing with its international partners.”

Jordan, a key Arab ally, said such “provocative acts” could “fuel the anger of Muslims and drag the region to more violence and extremism.”