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Supreme Court postpones Khan al-Ahmar demolition

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Israel’s Supreme Court last night granted a new temporary injunction postponing the proposed demolition of the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar.

The injunction was granted in response to an appeal by lawyers representing the residents claiming  demolition orders were filed by the Civil Administration but not eviction orders, which were required to clear the village.The High Court agreed to hear the petition and ordered the state to respond by Monday, 16 July.

This follows the injunction granted by the Supreme Court on 5 July, after a first urgent petition was submitted by Alaa Mahajna, a lawyer representing the residents of Khan al-Ahmar, last week.

The petition argued that the Civil Administration, which grants construction permits in the West Bank, never proposed any plans to legalise the village and refused to review a plan submitted by the villagers. The Civil Administration is due to respond to the issues raised by this first petition by tomorrow (11 July).

The Times of Israel reports that in addition to the petitions, the Civil Administration Committee, which is responsible for overseeing the demolition, announced it was going on strike from next Tuesday. It says the Israeli Finance Ministry’s has failed to implement improvements to their pension plans that were promised nearly three years ago. The Committee said that the Khan al-Ahmar evacuation is among the projects that will not be carried out prior to their return to work.

The Khan al-Ahmar village consists largely of houses built with tin and wood. The Bedouin tribe are believed to have moved to the village in the 1970s with approximately 180 people currently living there.

After a ten-year legal dispute involving four separate cases, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in May that the village was built illegally and must be evacuated and demolished. The Supreme Court also approved the Government plan to provide a new site for the residents and concluded that it offered suitable housing and allowed the community to continue herding their flocks and maintaining their traditional lifestyle.

This plan involved relocating the villagers five miles away from Khan al-Ahmar to “Jahalin West,” near Abu Dis on the outskirts of East Jerusalem, to build a new school and to provide each family with plots of land which would be connected to electricity and water.

Last week Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain submitted complaints to the Israeli Government making clear their opposition to the plan to demolish Khan al-Ahmar, reportedly warning Israeli officials that the demolition of the village “would trigger a reaction from EU member states”.