Israel Set to Raze West Bank Village

Last week, the Israeli military deemed the entire village was constructed illegally, setting the stage for the school and other buildings here to be razed. A lawyer for the village said he expected an Israeli demolition order on Thursday.

The ruling put this ramshackle village of 35 Bedouin families settled over half a century ago at the center of the conflict over who should govern the West Bank.

Some of Khan Al Ahmar’s 170 residents say Israel just wants the land to expand a nearby Jewish settlement. They argue that demolition would indicate that Israel is no longer committed to a peace deal that allows for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, a so-called “two-state solution.” Israel says its goal is merely to take down illegal structures.
.. Some lawmakers in the ruling coalition, including Minister of Education Naftali Bennett, say they want to formally make Area C part of Israel and give citizenship to the Palestinians living there. Around 300,000 Palestinians lived in Area C in 2014, according to the U.N., as did 385,900 Jewish Israeli settlers
.. Last year, the army razed 867 Palestinian homes in Area C, nearly twice 2015’s demolitions.
..Some opponents of the demolitions say Israel is trying to force Palestinian communities in Area C to move closer to Palestinian cities so they won’t vie with Israelis for land.“This larger policy is designed to allow Israel to hold as much land as possible with as few Palestinians on it as possible,” said Amit Gilutz, spokesman for B’Tselem, a left-wing nongovernmental organization that monitors demolitions of Palestinian homes.

.. Israeli officials reject such allegations. They say demolitions are the result of court rulings against illegal construction and aren’t connected to settlement expansion. Israel doesn’t consider settlements or demolitions an obstacle to a peace agreement.

..Israeli officials note that buildings constructed illegally in Jewish settlements also are demolished. On Tuesday, the military began evacuating nine homes in a Jewish settlement that the high court said were built on Palestinian land. Last month, the army evicted 300 Israelis from an illegal outpost, called Amona, for a similar reason.
.. U.N. officials argue that the situation is different for Palestinians, who seldom receive permission from the Israeli military’s Civil Administration, which administers the West Bank, to legally build.
.. Khan Al Ahmar was settled by Bedouins displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The village, with its school and dwellings of wood and corrugated metal are now wedged between two Jewish settlements.

Some Israeli lawmakers in Mr. Netanyahu’s ruling coalition hope to expand one of the settlements, Ma’ale Adumim, and make it the first Jewish settlement the government formally annexes. They have drafted a bill to achieve that end.

 .. The Civil Administration said it plans to move the Palestinian Bedouin in Khan Al Ahmar and other Bedouin in Area C to a planned community near Jericho where “the families will be assigned plots of land that include residential infrastructure such as water, electricity, and sewage, while maintaining the population’s lifestyle.”