In a development that could complicate peace talks with Palestinians and Syrians, the right-wing dominated Israeli parliament has passed a law conditioning a national referendum ahead of any withdrawal from occupied east Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.

The bill, proposed by lawmaker Yariv Levin of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, was passed into law with 65 parliamentarians voting in favour, 33 opposing and the remaining abstaining in a house of 120.

It outlines the rules for the referendum, which would be required in the case of an Israeli pullback from the Golan Heights or East Jerusalem, though not in the West Bank, which has not been annexed to Israel.

The legislation requiring a referendum has already been passed by the Knesset, but couldn’t have been implemented without the procedural legislation.

With the new law in place, any withdrawal without referendum would be possible only when a special majority of 80 Knesset members override the requirement, a seemingly difficult task in a highly fractured Israeli polity.

“This is a bill of the utmost national importance for retaining the unity of the people,” Levin said prior to the vote.

“The bill expresses the need to ensure that any fateful, irreversible decision on giving up parts of the homeland on which the state’s sovereignty has been enacted, will no longer be done through wheeling and dealing and recruiting parliamentary support through other issues, as has happened sadly in the past.”

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni criticised the bill saying that Netanyahu was attempting to pass on the decision of whether or not to relinquish land as part of a future peace deal since he is “too weak to make that decision himself”.

“Those are the kind of decisions taken by a leadership which understands the gravity of the issues at hand, from all sides,” Livni said, adding she felt Netanyahu was “a weak prime minister” who was comfortable with passing on responsibility.

The Kadima party leader said that any decision of the kind the bill discussed “would be tied to considerations that are not always made public, and then the public is expected to understand everything.”

“It has nothing to do with right-wing or left-wing but on decision making in a democracy, where there is only one referendum and that’s a general election,” Livni said, adding that the premier “should say the same things both before and after those elections.”

The decision coming close to another initiative that would require every non-Jewish aspirant of an Israeli citizenship to swear allegiance to the “Jewish and democratic state” is being seen as an attempt by Netanyahu to strengthen his nationalist credentials.

The referendum law is being seen as a measure aimed at hindering territorial withdrawals, making it more difficult for the government to give up land concessions under future peace agreements.