Palestinian Foreign Ministry calls on the international community to stop Israel’s plans to demolish the village of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar
Occupied Al-Quds, (ST) – The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday called on the international community to stop the Israeli occupation’s plans to demolish the village of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar, east of occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem). It demanded to take the necessary measures to ensure that occupation plans are not implemented.
The Ministry said in a statement on Monday, reported by Wafa News Agency, that this new, but old colonial scheme is racist one par excellence. It aims to carry out massive settlement operations in the area extending from Al-Quds to the Dead Sea, to completely separate Al-Quds from its Palestinian surroundings, and build more huge settlement blocs there.
The Foreign Ministry condemned the heinous campaign of incitement by Israeli ministers and Knesset members to demolish the village, including calls to storm into it and attack its people. It stressed that Al-Khan Al-Ahmar is Palestinian land, while the settlement expansion is void and illegal according to international law.
The village of Khan Al-Ahmar resists the separation of Al-Quds from its Palestinian surroundings
The Palestinian village of Khan Al-Ahmar is located 15 km east of Al-Quds (Jerusalem).
It is of strategic importance because it connects the north of the West Bank with its south.
The village was occupied in 1967, and the Israeli “Ma’ale Adumim” settlement was established on its land in 1977, which is the second largest settlement in the West Bank.
Al-Khan Al-Ahmar is surrounded by the settlements of “Ma’ale Adumim” and “Kfar Adumim”, which the occupation seeks to expand and implement its settlement plan aimed at seizing more than 60 percent of the area of the West Bank.
More than 200 Palestinians living in the village face the threat of demolishing their homes and forced displacement.
In the year 2000, the occupation’s restrictions on Al-Khan Al-Ahmar escalated by restricting the movement of the people. The occupation prevented any Palestinian who does not live in the village from entering it.
In March 2010, the occupation issued the first decision to demolish all the facilities of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar, but the people’s clinging to their land foiled this plan.
In May 2018, the occupation decided again to demolish the village, and the people responded with daily demonstrations in rejection of the decision, during which dozens were injured and detained.
In September 2018, the occupation notified the people to demolish their own homes within a week, or else its forces will demolish them amid Palestinian, Arab and international rejection.
Over 4 months after notification, a sit-in tent in Al-Khan Al-Ahmar was established as the place where hundreds of Palestinians and foreign solidarity activists gathered to confront the occupation’s attempts to displace and demolish the village.
In October 2018, a decision was issued by the International Criminal Court warning the occupation authorities against displacing the residents, or demolishing the village, which constitutes a war crime.
In front of the Palestinians’ steadfastness in defense of their land and as a result of the Arab, international and international rejection, the occupation was forced to change its plan, announcing the postponement of the demolition of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar.
In 22-1-2023 the Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced, during a meeting of the occupation government, a plan to immediately displace the residents of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar.
Al-Khan Al-Ahmar is located within the lands targeted by the occupation to implement its settlement expansion project aimed at controlling 12 thousand dunums extending from the lands of Al-Quds to the Dead Sea, and at emptying the area of the Palestinian presence.
The village represents the eastern gate to occupied Al-Quds, and the failure of the settlement plan in it means the failure of dividing the West Bank and separating occupied Al-Quds from the rest of its Palestinian surroundings.
Raghda Sawas