JERUSALEM – Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday approved the razing of a Bedouin village of 187 residents, half of them children, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Khan Al-Ahmar also includes a school serving 170 students from more than one Bedouin community in the area.
“The hearing was the final appeal open to the village, which will lead to our expulsion from our land,” community spokesperson Eid Jahaleen told Anadolu Agency.
“The court gave the Israeli government a six-month period to implement the demolition order,” he said.
In its ruling, the court said there was no reason to block the defense minister’s order to raze the village.
There are some 46 Bedouin communities in the occupied East Jerusalem area with 3,000 residents.
Israeli authorities are seeking to displace them from the area, which constitutes 20 percent of the West Bank, to benefit the expansion of Israeli settlements.
