{"id":4518,"date":"2018-12-28T19:15:50","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T19:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/?p=4518"},"modified":"2020-02-08T18:18:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-08T18:18:03","slug":"israels-plan-to-demolish-west-bank-village-could-constitute-war-crime-says-icc-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/?p=4518","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s plan to demolish West Bank village ‘could constitute war crime’, says ICC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The International Criminal Court has warned that Israel<\/a>‘s planned demolition of a Palestinian Bedouin village in the West Bank could constitute a war crime,\u00a0while\u00a0Theresa May has said\u00a0the action would be a \u201cmajor blow\u201d to the\u00a0two-state solution peace plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fatou Bensouda, the ICC\u2019s chief prosecutor, said on Wednesday she was continuing to \u201ckeep a close eye\u201d on developments, as the destruction of Khan al-Ahmar seemed imminent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few hours later, during PMQs, Ms May once again urged the Israeli authorities to scrap the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel’s Supreme Court recently rejected a final appeal against a decision to demolish the village and its famed \u201ctyre school\u201d, which provides education for some 170 children from five different Bedouin communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Israeli authorities gave the nearly 200 residents of the village until 1 October to destroy their own homes or be forcibly evicted. This week bulldozers positioned themselves in the area, according to activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ICC\u2019s Ms Bensouda said on Wednesday:\u00a0\u201cExtensive destruction of property without military necessity and population transfers in an occupied territory constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added: \u201cI continue to keep a close eye on the developments on the ground and will not hesitate to take any appropriate action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue was also raised by Michael Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland, during PMQs a few hours later.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0He said the Bedouin village had been \u201cswamped\u201d by sewage from nearby Israeli settlement Kafr Adumim, and that on Wednesday morning Israeli forces had Tasered and pepper-sprayed activists there.He asked Ms May if she would “make it clear” to her Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> this was an occupied territory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat these are refugees, protected people whose forcible removal would, as the United Nations have stated, constitute a war crime?\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A UN rights expert has also\u00a0warned<\/a> that the demolition of the village could constitute a war crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prime minister said that Minister for the Middle East\u00a0Alistair Burt met the Israeli ambassador on 11 October and communicated the UK\u2019s \u201cdeep concerns\u201d for the village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIts demolition would be a major blow for the prospects of a two-state solution, with Jerusalem as a shared capital,\u201d she told the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI once again call on the Israeli government not to go ahead with its plans to demolish the village\u00a0including its school and [to] displace its residents,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scuffles between Palestinians, activists and the Israeli security forces erupted this week when Israeli forces entered the village with heavy equipment and bulldozers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several people were injured and four arrested trying to resist the demolition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite international uproar, an Israeli court has ruled that Khan al-Ahmar’s Bedouin tribe, who were originally displaced from the Negev Desert in the 1950s, had illegally built their homes in an unsafe location near a main road. The Israeli authorities have defended the action saying that they merely want to relocate the villagers to a better location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0But critics say it is impossible for Palestinians to obtain the building permits in the Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank known as Area C.\u00a0According to Amnesty International, the two chosen relocation options for the village residents are beside a former Jerusalem<\/a> municipal garbage dump, or in the vicinity of a sewage plant close to the city of Jericho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

United Nations officials believe the destruction of Khan al-Ahmar is part of plans to expand\u00a0Kafr\u00a0\u2013 two nearby settlements\u00a0which are deemed illegal under international law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the UN\u2019s humanitarian affairs office OCHA, Khan al-Ahmar is one of 18 communities which will likely be cleared to make way for an Israeli settlement reorganisation proposal that would create a continuous built-up area\u00a0between Ma\u2019ale Adumim and East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, issued a joint statement last month saying the demolition could threaten the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials collapsed in 2014 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/middle-east\/israel-west-bank-village-demolish-war-crime-bedouin-icc-idf-a8588466.html\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

www.independent.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The International Criminal Court has warned that Israel‘s planned demolition of a Palestinian Bedouin village in the West Bank could constitute a war crime,\u00a0while\u00a0Theresa May has said\u00a0the action would be a \u201cmajor blow\u201d to the\u00a0two-state solution peace plan.\u00a0 Fatou Bensouda, the ICC\u2019s chief prosecutor, said on Wednesday she was continuing to \u201ckeep a close eye\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4518"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4518"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5159,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4518\/revisions\/5159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}