Israel’s High Court on Wednesday approved the government’s request to postpone the planned demolition and eviction of the Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank village of Khan Al-Ahmar by six months, the Middle East Monitor reported.
Walid Assaf, head of the Wall and Settlement Affairs Commission, explained that the High Court’s decision comes in light of the continued pressure from the international community and the International Criminal Court’s (ICC), warning that the eviction and displacement of the residents amount to a war crime.
Israeli high court defers evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar for six months https://t.co/mi0he7NnGN
— Joe Catron (@jncatron) September 29, 2021
“The occupation authorities tried to force the residents of Khan al-Ahmar to leave, but they failed because of the resident’s legendary steadfastness, also because of the ICC, which warned the Israeli government against displacing or demolishing the village and the surrounding communities in the area known as E1, considering such an act a war crime,” Assaf told the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
The order to raze the village, according to MEMO, was first issued in 2009, over ten years ago. With their position in the so-called E1 area, where a Jewish settlement expansion project is planned along the Jerusalem-Jericho road, Palestinian communities in Khan Al-Ahmar have battled for their existence for decades.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
