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EU, US warn Israel against razing Palestinian village

August 11, 2016 at 2:51 pm

The EU and US warned Israel of “serious” consequences should it raze the occupied West Bank village of Sussia, the Safa news agency reported Israeli media saying yesterday.

Reporting Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Safa said the “warning messages” reached the Israeli leadership over the last two weeks, noting the response if the village was razed would be “unconventional”.

The White House said: “In case the demolition was carried out, the United States would have the hardest response.”

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reported the US State Department Press Office Director Elizabeth Trudeau saying: “If the Israeli government proceeds with demolitions it would be very troubling.”

Haaretz reported a diplomatic source saying that both the United States and the European Union have spoken privately with Israeli officials about the matter.

“We hope the Israelis will not move ahead,” the source said, adding that to do so “would be to go against the whole international community,” elicit “a lot of angry reactions,” and would be the “crossing of a red line” because it would be “the first major displacement of a big group of people.”

The Palestinian residents of the village have been relocated several times since the 1980s due to the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements that eat into their land.

Several human rights groups have petitioned against the decision to demolish the village.

However, the Jerusalem Post reported South Hebron Hills Regional Council head Yochai Damri saying he was “outraged” with US interference with regards Sussia.

“It is unacceptable that the US government would interfere on legal matters,” Damri told the paper, adding: “We are talking about an attempt to prejudice the court in a foreign country.”