JERUSALEM, September 5, 2018 (WAFA) – The Israeli High Court gave on Wednesday the green light to the Israeli military to demolish the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar, located east of Jerusalem, paving the way for removing it, displacing its 180 residents and replacing it by a Jewish settlement.

According to Walid Assaf, head of the anti-wall, anti-settlement commission in the Palestinian Authority, the court gave the army one week to remove the village and said that its residents will not be allowed to return to it and live there again.

“We have exhausted all legal means at this point and there is nothing more we can do other than be present in the area to protect it and prevent its demolition,” he said.

Palestinians have been keeping almost daily vigils at the village and previously got into scuffle with Israeli forces who were trying to remove them from the area to demolish the village before the Palestinians went to court to stop the demolition, which they succeeded to delay it for few weeks.

The commission said removing the village will lead to the removal of other Bedouin communities in the same area, known as E1, where Israel wants to build a large settlement that would divide the Palestinian territories and kill any chance of having a continuous Palestinian state.

The decision to demolish Khan al-Ahmar has generated strong international condemnation and calls on Israel not to demolish it.

M.K.