Palestinians have been living under military rule in the West Bank for more than 50 years.
The special legal status granted to the settlers will end at the end of the month if Israel's parliament doesn't act. There are two members of Israel's Supreme Court who live in the settlements. Military courts that are usually reserved for Palestinians would be used to adjudicate settlers.
Israel's government is on the verge of collapse due to the looming deadline.
The governor of the Benyamin Regional Council said that without the law it would be a disaster. The Israeli government won't have any control here. No taxes.
More than 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank are not covered by a legal umbrella that has been renewed many times. The Knesset will vote on the bill again next week in a last-ditch effort to save the coalition.
Three major human rights groups say that the legal system for Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank is akin to apartheid. Israel doesn't accept that allegation as an attack on its legitimacy.
According to Jessica Montell, director of the Israeli human rights group HaMoked, this is the piece of legislation that enablesapartheid.
Even though they are in occupied territory, they still enjoy all the rights and benefits of being Israeli.
The Knesset supports keeping the separate systems. The nationalist opposition refused to vote in favor of the bill, in order to bring down the government. Lawmakers from the anti-settlement camp voted in favor of the legislation.
More than 130 settlements have been built in the West Bank since Israel captured it in 1967. The Palestinians want the West Bank to be the center of their future state. The settlements are viewed as violating international law by most countries.
The heartland of the Jewish people is referred to as Judea and Samaria by Israel. Bennett is opposed to Palestinian statehood. The fate of the West Bank is subject to negotiations which collapsed more than a decade ago.
Much of Israeli law is extended to West Bank settlers but not to the territory itself.
Liron Libman is a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former top Israeli military prosecutor.
If the bill isn't renewed by the end of the month, there will be repercussions.
Lawyers and judges are required to live in Israel. The law would not allow settlers to practice law in Israeli courts. One of the Supreme Court justices upheld an order to relocate hundreds of Palestinians.
The bill's lapse could result in more settlers who run afoul of the law being tried in military courts.
The ability to use national health insurance for treatment in the West Bank, and the ability to update their status in the population registry, could be lost by the settlers.
There is a legal basis for Israel to jail thousands of Palestinians who have been convicted by military courts in prisons inside the country. Israel could have to move prisoners back to the West Bank because of the law's failure.
Many Israelis expect the government to be replaced if the bill passes. It is possible that Israeli authorities will find ways to deal with the worst effects.
The leader of the settlers said he was not concerned. When you owe $1 million to the bank, you are worried about it, but when you owe $1 billion, the bank manager is worried.
"I agree with you that the legal systems are not equivalent to apartheid."
Under interim peace accords, Israel already exercises complete control over Area C, which is the 60 percent of the West Bank. Some 300,000 Palestinians live in rural areas that are included in Area C.
The majority of Palestinians live in Areas A and B, which are disconnected from each other.
The population in the same area has different laws. Everyone in Area C needs to know Israeli law.
Two years ago, Benjamin Netanyahu put annexation on hold as part of a deal with the U.A.
The Palestinians see annexation as a violation of international law that would deal a fatal blow to any hope of a two-state solution.
Netanyahu hopes the West Bank bill's defeat will speed up his return to power. The coalition can't pass it on its own due to a few lawmakers refusing to vote for it.
It is possible that the law was designed with the idea of partition in mind. Many Palestinians think that Israel was never serious about a two-state solution.
Diana Buttu is a Palestinian lawyer and former adviser to the Palestinian Authority. It passes by the left and the right. The idea of two states is a fiction.
That's right.
Alon Bernstein is a reporter for the Associated Press.
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