Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the Israeli government a new delay before ruling on the enforceability of a controversial demolition order targeting a Palestinian Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank, which has become emblematic of opposition to Jewish colonization.
In May 2018, the country’s highest court ruled that there was “no valid legal reason” to oppose the “decision of the Ministry of Defense to destroy” this village, Khan al-Ahmar, located about ten kilometers east of Jerusalem.
But under strong outside pressure, notably from the European Union and the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, had declared that such destruction could constitute a war crime, the Israeli government postponed several times the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, where about 200 Bedouins live.
In 2019, a right-wing Zionist NGO, Regavim, which says it campaigns to “preserve national lands”, seized the Supreme Court to force the government to destroy the village.
The NGO reacted Tuesday evening saying that “the Supreme Court once again covers the government’s inability to formulate and apply a relevant vision” in the West Bank.
“It is time for the State of Israel to grow up and take itself seriously, otherwise we cannot wait for others to do so,” Regavim added in a statement.
This is located in Area C, that is to say under total military and administrative control of the Israeli State, which accuses the Palestinian Bedouins of having settled there illegally, knowing that it is practically impossible for Palestinians to obtain construction permits in this area, which covers more than 60% of the occupied West Bank.
Since Regavim’s appeal to the Court, successive Israeli governments have repeatedly asked for delays, citing reasons related to political instability, to present their arguments to the court.
Already postponed eight times, the deadline fell on the 1er February, but the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has several supporters of the demolition of the village in its ranks, including a former director of Regavim, had asked for a new postponement, arguing that, having taken office at the end of December, it had to more time to prepare.
On Tuesday, the Court imposed a fine of 20,000 shekels (about 5,350 euros) on the executive for its “general attitude” in this case, but granted it three additional months, until 1er may.
According to Israeli newspapers, the real reason for the government’s wait-and-see attitude is the fear that the demolition of the village and the transfer of its inhabitants would precipitate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a new spiral of uncontrollable violence as we witness an escalation since the beginning of the year.
Colony Belt
Stuck between two Jewish settlements near Jerusalem, Khan al-Ahmar has established himself as one of the symbols of the fight against the expansion of Israeli settlements, which the UN considers contrary to international law, and where more than 475,000 now live. people.
Opponents of the demolition argue that it would allow the expansion of settlements in such a way as to constitute a belt of Jewish settlements around occupied and annexed East Jerusalem, to isolate it from the rest of the West Bank and thus compromise further the possibility of a negotiated peace solution.
A figure on the Israeli right, Mr. Netanyahu, who holds the record for longevity in power for an Israeli prime minister, lost his post in 2021. He returned to power at the end of December thanks to an alliance with parties in extreme right, militant for an intensification of colonization or even, for some, an outright annexation of the West Bank, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish formations.
On January 30, during a visit with several European Union diplomats to Khan al-Ahmar, Oliver Owcza, Germany’s representative to the Palestinians, warned of the consequences, in his view, of a destruction of the village.
” The way [serait alors] open to the extension of colonization”, which, in addition to being “contrary to international law […] would politically jeopardize the prospect of a two-state solution,” Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side.
“The international community praises peace” but “if the village is demolished, the peace process ends,” said Eid al-Jahalin, spokesman for Khan al-Ahmar, asking: “ Is the international community capable of preserving this village for peace to come, or not? »