Israeli court upholds order to raze Palestinian village

Israel’s supreme court has upheld an order to destroy a Palestinian Bedouin village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, despite strong international appeal against the move.

In upholding the order on Wednesday, the court also rejected a petition filed by residents of the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar.

“We reject the petitions” against the directive to demolish Khan al-Ahmar, the Supreme Court panel said in its ruling, adding that a temporary order preventing the razing of the village during court hearings “will be canceled within seven days from today,” AFP reported.

For around nine years, various tribunals had been hearing various cases against the destruction of the village.

Palestinians were forced to build Khan al-Ahmar out of sticks and stones in the face of Israel’s refusal to issue building permits across much of the occupied territory. The Israeli officials call the constructions “illegal.”

In July, the European Union and the United Nations each demanded that Tel Aviv refrain from going ahead with the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar.

Israel’s minister for military affairs Avigdor Liberman hailed the court’s decision, calling it a move in the face of “the coordinated hypocrisy attack by Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas), the left, and European states.”

Israel closes Gaza crossing

In separate news, the Israeli military said it was closing the Erez Crossing, which is the Gaza Strip’s sole crossing meant for people to travel to and from the blockaded enclave, just 10 days after it had reopened it.

It claimed “a violent riot” at the site had prompted the decision to close it.

By riots, it was referring to a protest by a group of Palestinians who had gathered at the site to condemn an earlier US decision to cut all of its funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Israel has been enforcing an all-out blockade of the territory since 2007. The UN has warned that the blockade on Gaza would render it uninhabitable by 2020.

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