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JERUSALEM – The Israeli Supreme Court on Wednesday set the stage for the demolition of a Bedouin village in the West Bank, rejecting a final appeal in a case that sparked fierce international criticism and became a rallying cry for Palestinians.
The court rejected an appeal to block the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar. He said that a stay would expire in a week and that the encampment could then be legally demolished. There was no date immediately announced for the demolition.
The UN, the European Union and others have expressed concern over the fate of Khan al-Ahmar, just east of Jerusalem. Palestinian leaders have met several times at the scene to protest the planned demolition.
Israel claims that the village, a corrugated hut camp outside the Kfar Adumim settlement, was illegally built and offered to resettle residents 7 km away. But critics say it's impossible for Palestinians to get building permits and the demolition is meant to make way for an Israeli settlement.
The three judges who heard the appeal stated that they had not presented any evidence justifying the rejection of the previous verdict and that the illegality of the construction on the site was beyond doubt.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman praised the judges for their "brave" decision in the face of a "hypocritical" campaign by Palestinians, the Israeli left and European countries.
"No one is above the law," he said. "No one can prevent us from exercising our sovereignty and our responsibility as a state."
Amnesty International has stated that the court approved a "war crime", citing the forced transfer of persons under occupation as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
"With this shameful and patently illegal decision," said Saleh Higazi, head of the Amnesty office in Jerusalem, "the Supreme Court has confirmed a complicity in the crime of forcible transfer of Palestinian communities for the expansion of Jewish settlements ". & # 39;
The residents remained provocative and said that they would resist the move.
"We will oppose this decision, and we will not leave our land," said Ibrahim Abu Dahook, who lives in the camp.
The village is in the 60% of the West Bank known as Zone C, which remains under the exclusive control of Israel and is home to dozens of Israeli settlements. Israel imposes severe restrictions on Palestinian development in that country, and house demolitions are not unusual.
In rare cases, Israel has also expelled Jewish settlers who squatted illegally. But settlers are generally much easier to receive building permits, and the government often retroactively legalizes unauthorized outposts, turns a blind eye or offers compensation to uprooted settlers.
Under the interim peace agreements concluded in the 1990s, the West Bank was divided 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 the economic development of their future state.
Israel says that the structures that make up the Khan al-Ahmar camp, which includes an Italian-funded school, pose a threat to residents because of their proximity to a highway. Critics have rejected this claim as a ploy to remove the approximately 180 inhabitants of the village.
The tribe of previously nomadic Bedouins lived in the region for decades after leaving the Negev desert after Israel's inception in 1948, raising and grazing goats and sheep in the hills east of Jerusalem, the party the narrowest in the West Bank. Over time, they found themselves nestled between two large Israeli settlements, and the developers called for their evacuation.
The case has been pending for nearly a decade, with the court issuing repeated stays, but Wednesday's decision seems to remove the last obstacle to demolition.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on Israel to abandon its plans and has declared that the destruction of private property by an occupying Power violates international law. The European Union has asked Israel to reconsider the planned demolition.
Bedouin Arabs in the West Bank are a small, impoverished minority of the Palestinian population at large. As in many other Bedouin camps, the people of Khan al-Ahmar live in huts or corrugated tents, often without electricity or running water, and raise livestock.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education recently decided to start the school year ahead of time so that 170 primary students from Khan al-Ahmar and four neighboring Bedouin communities will try to prevent any Israeli decision.
