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JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he had decided to postpone the planned demolition of a hamlet in the West Bank in order to allow time for a negotiated settlement with its residents, which seemed to avoid the fierce international condemnation of such a demolition. probably involve.
Israel has been the subject of strong criticism, with major European countries urging it to avoid the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar. The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court recently said that such a measure could constitute a war crime.
Israeli officials said alternative solutions had arrived in recent days from different sources and that Netanyahu wanted to give them a chance. This has sparked criticism from Netanyahu's extremist coalition partners, who are calling for decisive action. In response, Netanyahu said that the hamlet would be shaved and that its delay was not unlimited.
"Khan al-Ahmar will be evacuated, it's a court decision, it's our policy and it's done," he said. "I do not intend to defer this decision until further notice, contrary to what has been reported, but for a short period of time."
Netanyahu said he would convene his cabinet on Sunday to decide on the length of the delay.
Israel claims that the Palestinian Bedouin encampment made up of corrugated huts outside an Israeli settlement was illegally built in an unsafe location near a major road. He proposed to resettle the inhabitants a few kilometers (3 km) in improved conditions, with connections to the water, electricity and wastewater treatment, which they are currently lacking. Critics say that it is impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits and that the demolition plan is intended to give way to the expansion of an Israeli settlement.
Israel's Supreme Court recently rejected a final appeal, paving the way for the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar.
The 180-strong camp has become a rallying cry for the Palestinians, who have organized large-scale protests on the site in recent months. Much of Europe's high-level commitment stems from the fact that such demolitions could threaten the prospect of an adjoining Palestinian state, while the hope of a two-state solution has already dimmed.
For Palestinians, this is part of a creeping annexation of the territory they seek for a future state.
The village lies in the 60% of the West Bank known as Zone C, which remains under exclusive Israeli control and is home to dozens of settlements. Israel imposes restrictions on Palestinian development in this country and house demolitions are not unusual. Under the interim peace agreements concluded in the 1990s, the West Bank was split into autonomous and semi-autonomous Palestinian areas, called zones A and B, and zone C, which is home to some 400,000 Israeli settlers.
Palestinians claim the entire West Bank and claim that Area C, home to between 150,000 and 200,000 Palestinians, is critical to their economic development.
Waleed Assaf, who heads the Palestinian settlement affairs department, welcomed the Israeli announcement but said the opposition would continue "until the Israelis completely annul the order. demolition ".
"I think the international pressure, especially from the EU, and the clear warning of the ICC that the kidnapping of this hamlet of the West Bank constitutes a war crime motivated the new Israeli decision" , did he declare.
Israel says that the case of Khan al-Ahmar is a simple matter of law and order. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman made it clear that he was in favor of the immediate demolition of the hamlet.
Naftali Bennett, president of the Jewish party Home, a pro-settler party, adopted an even stronger tone.
"It's an illegal building whose destruction has been approved by the Supreme Court," he tweeted. "In a nation of laws, you apply the law even though the international community objects and threatens."
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