Israeli High Court rules gov’t can delay demolition of illegal Bedouin village
Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled on Sunday that the government may delay the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, an illegally built Bedouin village near Jerusalem that has been the epicentre of a decades-long legal battle.
Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al Ahmar in the Jerusalem Governorate of the West Bank, expected to be destroyed. Khan al Ahmar, Oct 16, 2018. Photo by Kobi Richter/TPS
Legal efforts to prevent the outpost’s razing came to an end in May 2018 when the High Court ruled that Khan al-Ahmar could be demolished and its residents relocated. However, the previous governments of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yair Lapid never followed through on the evacuation.
In response to a petition demanding Khan al-Ahmar’s demolition, Netanyahu’s government cited “the complexity of the issue at hand and its sensitivity, as well as the great interest it arouses among various parties in the international community and its implications for the foreign relations and security of the State of Israel.”
Sunday’s ruling agreed. The court said that it would allow the government to decide on the timing of the evacuation because of “diplomatic and security matters of the highest level.”
The ruling, written by Justice Alex Stein, said that confidential documents provided by the government “put our minds at ease that these reasons, without exception, are tied to state security and foreign affairs.”
The Bedouins of the Jahalin tribe built the village’s first structures without permits on state-owned land in the 1970s between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. Its residents — around 200 adults and children — are not Israeli citizens.
The petition for Khan al-Ahmar’s immediate demolition was filed by Regavim, a non-governmental organization that monitors illegal Palestinian construction and land theft in Judea and Samaria. Regavim was co-founded in 2006 by Betzalel Smotrich, who is now Finance Minister and also oversees the civil administration of Judea and Samaria.
Smotrich has not commented on yesterday’s ruling.
Regavim called the ruling “a disgrace.”
Outwardly, Bedouin leaders say the evacuation is part of an effort to reduce the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem and that they are ready for a confrontation.
But a Bedouin source in Khan al-Ahmar told the Tazpit Press Service in January that there is tension between the Bedouins and the Palestinian Authority.
Untidy as this hamlet is, it is home to these indigenous Bedouins. They are not immigrants from Europe and elsewhere. They used to be mobile travellers, with their camels, like many traditional “Aborigines”, but they were forced by the government to settle in one location which is not a success. Israel should let them roam on their traditional homelands but this has been interfered with by Jewish so called “ranchers” in the Negev desert, including the PM’s farm..
Welcome decision by the High Court.
Paves the way for the implementation of the 2022 Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution that could within 12 months see the end of 100 years of conflict between Jews and Arabs.