DUBLIN, June 1, 2018 (WAFA) – The Republic of Ireland strongly denounced on Thursday Israeli plans to demolish the Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem, and demanded cancelling it.

Simon Coveney, the Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland, said in a statement that the decision to demolish the community to make way for building a Jewish settlement is prohibited by international humanitarian law.

Coveney has expressed “deep concern about the situation of the Palestinian community of Khan Al Ahmar, who are living under threat of forcible transfer, and has called for the threat against the community to be lifted,” according to the statement.

"I am extremely concerned about the situation of the Khan al-Ahmar community in the West Bank. This vulnerable Bedouin community, who have already been expelled once by Israel from their former homes in the Negev area, are again threatened unjustly with forced removal,” said Coveney.

“International humanitarian law prohibits the forcible transfer of the protected population of an occupied territory, regardless of the motive.”

The Irish Deputy Prime Minister called upon the Israeli authorities “to halt the demolitions of Palestinian property and the removal of Palestinian communities, actions which constantly erode the viability of a two-state solution."

The Israeli Supreme Court recently gave the go-ahead to the Israeli army to demolish the Palestinian community of around 200 people as Israel plans to build thousands of housing units for Jewish settlers in their place.

Eighteen other similar communities in the vicinity of Khan al-Ahmar are also at risk of forcible removal because they are located in or next to an area slated in part for the E1 settlement plan, which aims at creating a continuous built-up area between the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim and occupied East Jerusalem.

M.K.