2023-05-08 17:54:34
Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday rejected a petition by a right-wing organisation supportive of settlement To force the authorities of the Hebrew state to demolish a Palestinian Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank.
This court, the highest judicial authority in Israel, issued a decision in 2018 stating that there is no “acceptable legal reason” preventing the demolition of the Khan al-Ahmar community, which is located on a main road east of Jerusalem. However, after intense international pressure from the European Union and the International Criminal Court, the demolition of the village was repeatedly postponed.
The right-wing Israeli organization Regavim sued the government to force officials to demolish the village of 200. Last February, the court again agreed to the government’s request to postpone further consideration of the demolition case.
In its decision on Sunday, the court said that while the Bedouin village was “illegal”, the arguments presented by the government for delaying consideration of demolishing Khan al-Ahmar again were compelling enough for another delay, but did not set a date this time.
In response to the decision, the “Regavim” organization confirmed in a statement, “the state’s submission to international pressure,” noting that the court’s decision “is leading the country to the brink of chaos.” Khan al-Ahmar is located in Area C of the occupied West Bank, where it is almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits.
Opponents of the move believe that demolishing the settlement will enable Israel to expand settlements in a way that divides the West Bank into two parts, which will make it impossible to establish a contiguous Palestinian state geographically.
Demolition of a school
And at dawn on Sunday, the Israeli authorities demolished the “Challenge Five” mixed basic school in the remote village of “Jib al-Dib” east of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, while the European Union, which funded the construction of the school, expressed its “shock.” The European Union condemned the move, considering it illegal, at a time when Regavim, which filed the petition against the school, claimed that the Palestinians had “appropriated” the land. Witnesses also said that the contents of the school were confiscated.
When demolishing Palestinian buildings in the West Bank, which it captured in 1967, Israel often points to the lack of building permits, while Palestinians and rights groups say they are almost impossible to obtain. The Palestinians want more than half a million Jewish settlers, along with Israeli soldiers, to leave their occupied lands. Israel rejects this and says it has historical and biblical ties to those lands.
Gush Etzion Regional Council welcomed the demolition. The council represents a bloc of Jewish settlers near the school located in the West Bank. “This is definitely another step in the ongoing struggle for the lands of our state… There is still a lot of work to do,” Shlomo Naaman, mayor of Gush Etzion and head of the Elisha Council, said in a statement.
The Ministry of Education in the Palestinian Authority described the demolition as a “heinous crime”, saying that it would “deprive its students from receiving their education in a free, safe and stable manner, like the children of the world.”
An Israeli official said that the dispute over the safety of the building had been going on for six years, and that a nearby school could accommodate the students from this school.
A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Berlin will hold talks with the Israeli authorities after the demolition of a Palestinian school in the West Bank. The spokesman told a regular press conference that the demolition of the school near Bethlehem, which the Israeli army said was built illegally, undermines the peace process.
FRANCE 24/AFP/Archyde.com
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