Israel lawmakers OK supermajority law

JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament passed a law Tuesday requiring a supermajority to relinquish control over any part of Jerusalem, a move that could hamstring the city’s division in any future peace deal.

The amendment bars the government from ceding Israeli sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem without the approval of at least 80 of the legislature’s 120 members. But the law itself can be overturned with a simple majority, making it largely symbolic.

The law also permits the government to remove outlying Palestinian neighborhoods from the city, a move promoted by hard-liners to preserve Jerusalem’s Jewish majority. They would be turned into separate municipalities under Israeli control.

The Knesset approved the legislation in a 64-52 vote early Tuesday, with opposition politicians saying it would make it even harder to make peace with the Palestinians.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 war and annexed in a move not recognized internationally, to be the capital of their future state. Tensions rose after President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital last month, breaking with decades of U.S. policy and an international consensus that the city’s status should be decided in peace negotiations.

AP/ODED BALILTY A view of the Western Wall and Dome of the Rock can be seen in this Jerusalem photo from early December.