Facing Expulsion

On Thursday, 24 May 2018, three Israeli Supreme Court justices – Noam Sohlberg, Anat Baron and Yael Willner – ruled that the state may demolish the homes of the community of Khan al-Ahmar, transfer the residents from their homes and relocate them. This ruling removes the last stumbling block in Israel’s way in the matter, lifting the impediment which had thus far served to defer the transfer of the community, a war crime under international law. While it is a policy shaped by the government, the justices – here as well as in other cases – pitched in and paved the road to the commission of a war crime. Personal liability for the commission of this crime will fall not only on policy-makers. Those who paved the juridical route enabling the crime are equally liable.

On 28 December 2017, at approximately 8:30 A.M., Civil Administration officials came with Border Police officers to the Khan al-Ahmar School community in the area of Ma’ale Adumim, handed the residents a military warrant and took away 60 wooden panels and two doors. The community of Khan al-Ahmar is located in an area that Israel has earmarked for future expansion of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement. Later that day, at around 1:00 P.M., Civil Administration officials came with Border Police officers to another community in Khan al-Ahmar, a-Tabneh, and confiscated 10 tin panels and four packs of iron bars that are used to erect temporary structures for events. Read all reports on Khan al-Ahmar here. 

On 19 February 2017, large numbers of Civil Administration personnel and police arrived at the Khan al-Ahmar community, which is located near the settlement of Maale Adumim. They served 39 stop-work orders (a preamble step preceding demolition orders) , which apply to all of the community’s buildings, including its school. The school was built in 2009 and also serves children from other nearby communities. Khan al-Ahmar is situated in an area Israel earmarked for the future expansion of Maale Adumim. In 2016, Israeli authorities demolished 12 dwellings in the community, rendering 60 people homeless, including 35 minors.

On 27 Sept. 2016, Israel demolished 22 structures, half of them homes, in five West Bank communities: in the northern Jordan Valley, near Ma’ale Adumim, the South Hebron Hills, and East Jerusalem. This left 56 Palestinians, including 30 minors, homeless. The authorities also demolished water cisterns, livestock pens, and part of a school. This is part of a massive demolition campaign to pressure Palestinians to leave Area C that has, since the beginning of 2016, left 1,010 people homeless, including 530 minors.

More demolitions this morning in the Jordan Valley and Ma’ale Adumim Area. Wave of demolitions, today, Apr. 7, in several West Bank communities including E1 and repeat demolitions in Khirbet Tana in the Jordan Valley. Earlier this week, the authorities demolished 6 dwellings in Um al-Kheir, South Hebron Hills, and 2 in Wadi al-Qalt. The recent action has left 43 people homeless, including 26 minors. It is part of a demolition campaign launched by Israel in early 2016, in which 128 dwellings and 138 other structures in vulnerable communities have already been destroyed, leaving 510 people, including 275 minors homeless.

This morning, around 6am, civil Administration and army forces demolished the homes of four families numbering 32 people, of them 21 minorsat the a-Sa'idi community, near a-Za'ayem. The forces then moved to the abu-Falah community, in the Khan al-Ahmar area, and demolished a residential shack housing two people and a structure used to house guests. Later the authorities demolished 12 structures in the adjacent Bir al-Maksub and Wadi Shneisel communities, nine of them residential homes. Authorities leave the residents and herds with no shelter in harsh weather conditions.

Representatives of the Civil Administration came this afternoon to the Palestinian community of Khan al-Ahmar in the West Bank, north of the Ma'ale Adummim settlement, and began dismantling 11 energy production solar panels. These panels provide electricity to the community and to its school, which serves children from all Bedouin communities in the area. They were assembled over the past three months, and two of them only today. B'Tselem's field researcher is currently on location documenting the dismantling and confiscation activities.

On 13 May 2014 the HCJ rejected a petition by settlements in the Ma’ale Adumim area to implement demolition orders for a school and homes in Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin community. The rejection was grounded in the State’s announced plan to relocate the community to a site north of Jericho and its declared intention of preventing harm to minors. The relocation plan has yet to be shown to the residents, who object to the idea and demand a planning solution at their current location. International law prohibits forced transfer of protected civilians.

Israel's Civil Administration is planning to forcibly relocate some 27,000 Bedouins living in Area C in the West Bank. At first, 20 communities, comprising some 2,300 people, will be uprooted from the area of the Ma'ale Adummim settlement and relocated to a site next to the Abu Dis garbage dump, east of Jerusalem. Members of the Khan al-Ahmar community explain how the move will affect them.

The Civil Administration has announced a plan to "relocate" the 27,000 Bedouins living in Area C in the West Bank. In Jan. 2012, some 2,300 Bedouins will be forcibly transferred to a site near the Abu Dis refuse dump, east of Jerusalem, in blatant contravention of international law, which prohibits the forced transfer of protected persons. The expulsion will advance the splitting up of the West Bank by enabling expansion of the Ma'ale Adummim settlement, exacerbating the injustice.