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‘Symbol of lawlessness’ – Gov’t to postpone Khan Al-Amar evacuation, again

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“Khan Al-Amar is the symbol of lawlessness and selective enforcement, whereas questionable Jewish properties are immediately destroyed while illegal PA encampments, funded by the EU, are allowed to remain intact,” a spokesperson for the Gush Etzion Regional Council said.

By World Israel News Staff

Despite campaign promises from the Religious Zionist Party to dismantle the long-standing illegal Bedouin outpost Khan Al-Amar, the right-wing government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to file yet another request with the Supreme Court to delay dismantling the community.

The subject of a decades-long court battle, some 200 Bedouins live in huts and tents at the outpost, which is located in Samaria, on the outskirts of the Jerusalem suburb Ma’ale Adumim. Dwellings at the site are not connected to sewage or water systems, nor the electrical grid.

In 2018, after lawsuits that stretched some 20 years, the Supreme Court ruled that Khan Al-Amar had never been a permanent community, but rather a waypoint used for several weeks a year by nomadic Bedouins.

The court also found that the residents did not have any rights to the land and that the Israeli government had the authority to evacuate the site in accordance with the Oslo Accords because Khan Al-Amar is in Area C.

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The Regavim NGO, which advocates for Israeli sovereignty and battles illegal Arab building, filed a petition with the Supreme Court in 2018 aimed at forcing the government to execute the court’s decision and dismantle the community.

Since 2019, the government has consistently refused to do so and filed numerous requests postponing the execution of the evacuation.

The expected request on Sunday marks the ninth time that the government has asked for a delay. This time, the government’s justification is expected to be that dismantling the community will spark international backlash during a sensitive security period, and that final negotiations for evacuating the site are currently underway.

“Khan Al-Amar is the symbol of lawlessness and selective enforcement, whereas questionable Jewish properties are immediately destroyed while illegal PA encampments, funded by the EU, are allowed to remain intact,” a spokesperson for the Gush Etzion Regional Council told World Israel News.

The spokesperson noted that the encampment “is not only illegal, but [also] a danger to the squatters there, particularly the children, who are being used as political pawns by their leadership, alongside Highway 1, a major thoroughfare.

“Various Israeli governments have offered numerous legal housing alternatives, but the PA won’t allow the people there to move onto the grid and lead normal lives.

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“All governments which fail to act and take down Khan Al-Amar are doing a disservice to the residents there and are ignoring the courts, which have already ruled that their presence there on state lands is illegal. This type of weakness breeds further lawlessness.”

A spokesperson from Zionist NGO Im Tirtzu described Khan Al-Ahmar as “a place that has been conquered by the European Union and the Palestinian Authority” in a statement to WIN.

“Israel has the obligation to liberate this place from the grips of” those entities, “which are manipulating Khan Al Ahmar for their anti-Israel purposes. We hope that the government will be able to address this issue as soon as possible and to stand strong and to successfully free this place from European Union and Palestinian Authority control.”

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