{"id":3624,"date":"2017-09-21T13:24:35","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T13:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/?p=3624"},"modified":"2017-09-24T14:08:04","modified_gmt":"2017-09-24T14:08:04","slug":"israel-notifies-bedouin-communities-of-imminent-forced-relocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/?p=3624","title":{"rendered":"Israel Notifies Bedouin Communities Of Imminent Forced Relocation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By\u00a0Ma’an News Agency<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Khan al-Ahmar is one of 46 Palestinian Bedouin villages comprising of a population of 7,000 in the central West Bank that is considered by the UN as being at risk of forcible transfer by Israel.<\/p>\n

Israeli forces have notified residents<\/strong>\u00a0of the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar that they are at risk of imminent forcible transfer from their lands, weeks after Israeli Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman reportedly announced that plans were underway to expel Khan al-Ahmar\u2019s residents within a few months.<\/p>\n

Lieberman also said that plans for the full expulsion of the community of Susiya, located in the South Hebron Hills, were also underway.<\/p>\n

Following the remarks, Israeli rights group B\u2019Tselem slammed the Israeli government and sent an urgent letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that said the evacuation of the Susiya and Khan al-Ahmar, located east of Jerusalem, would \u201cconstitute a war crime carried out at your instruction and under your personal responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

B\u2019Tselem then reported that officials from the Israeli army and Civil Administration told locals in Khan al-Ahmar on Wednesday that their only option is to move to a so-called relocation site that was allocated by Israel to the Bedouin community without consulting them.<\/p>\n

According to the group, the proposed site known as al-Jabal West is located next to a garbage dump in Adu Dis.<\/p>\n

The Khan al-Ahmar community\u2019s lawyer Shlomo Lecker had informed the Civil Administration officer in charge that he was not permitted to meet with his clients without his consent and presence, \u201cyet the CA went ahead regardless,\u201d B\u2019Tselem said.<\/p>\n

A hearing at the Israeli Supreme Court has meanwhile been scheduled for Sep. 25, regarding petitions submitted against the Israeli state\u2019s plans to demolish all Khan al-Ahmar\u2019s structures, as well as a petition submitted by illegal Israeli settlements in the area that want Khan al-Ahmar\u2019s school to be demolished.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Civil Administration\u2019s actions appear to be paving the way for the state to claim that it is acting in goodwill and has consulted the community,\u201d B\u2019Tselem said.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Israeli authorities delivered demolition notices to every single home in the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, including the village\u2019s elementary school.<\/p>\n

The village is located on the site of planned Israeli settlement development and on the Israeli side of the planned route of Israel\u2019s separation barrier.<\/p>\n

According to B\u2019Tselem, on Aug. 27, hundreds of Israeli settlers, joined by Israeli parliamentarians, demonstrated near Khan al-Ahmar, pressuring the government to move forward with its demolition plan.<\/p>\n

The demolition notices were issued on the basis of the community lacking almost impossible to obtain Israeli building permits, which the United Nations has said results from the discriminatory zoning and planning regimes implemented in Area C \u2014 the more than 60 percent of the occupied West Bank under full Israeli control.<\/p>\n

Khan al-Ahmar is one of 46 Palestinian Bedouin villages comprising of a population of 7,000 \u2014 70 percent of whom are Palestinian refugees \u2014 in the central West Bank that is considered by the UN as being at risk of forcible transfer by Israeli authorities to alternative sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Demolition of an entire community in the Occupied Territories is virtually unprecedented since 1967. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which Israel is obliged to respect in all its actions in the West Bank, this amounts to the forcible transfer of protected persons, which constitutes a war crime,\u201d B\u2019Tselem emphasized.<\/p>\n

Watch |\u00a0Israel Demolishes Bedouin Village to Build Jewish-Only Town<\/strong>
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