Dubai: The United States on Monday described as “troubling” an Israeli bill supported by a ministerial committee allowing colonists in the occupied West Bank to remain in homes built on private Palestinian land and said it hoped the law does not pass.

“We are deeply concerned about the advancement of legislation that would allow for the legalisation of illegal Israeli outposts located on private Palestinian land,” State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told a briefing.

If the law were enacted, it could pave the way for the legalisation of dozens of illegal outposts deep in the West Bank, she said, adding: “This would represent an unprecedented and troubling step that’s inconsistent with prior Israeli legal opinion and also break long-standing policy of not building on private Palestinian land,” Trudeau said.

The US believes colonies endangered prospects for a two-state solution and Israeli-Palestinian peace, she said. “We hope it doesn’t become law,” Trudeau added.

The ministerial committee defied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and voted on Sunday to back the bill, which will be debated by parliament on Wednesday and is still some distance from becoming law.

Meanwhile, Israel’s right-wing minister Naftali Bennet of the radical Jewish Home party said on Monday that Donald Trump’s election as the next US president presents Israel with a unique opportunity to recast its Middle East policies.

Bennett, a staunch proponent of Israeli colony building, said it was now up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to communicate to the US administration and the world what he wanted and push for it.

“The combination of changes in the United States, in Europe and in the region provide Israel with a unique opportunity to reset and rethink everything,” Bennett, 44, told members of the Foreign Press Association.

“We have a chance to reset the structure across the Middle East. We have to seize that opportunity and act on it.” Relying on “old paths”, he said, would be a mistake.

Bennett would not be drawn on what actions he thinks Netanyahu should take. But in the past, Bennett has called for the annexation of most of the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for a state together with Gaza and East Jerusalem.

Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the 1967 Middle East war.

Netanyahu, who has a fractious relationship with President Barack Obama, has welcomed Trump’s election, chatting with him by phone and posting a video on Facebook promoting the ties between the countries. Their wives have also spoken.

But he has also been cautious about overplaying the benefits of a Trump presidency, perhaps so as not to pre-empt whatever policies the president adopts and to avoid giving the impression that he expects something from the United States.