Israel requests two-week delay in West Bank village demolition case

The Israeli government has asked the Supreme Court for “a two-week postponement in presenting its position” concerning the expulsion of a Palestinian village in the West Bank, Haaretz reports.

According to the paper, the present request for a postponement was filed after European diplomats, including the British, applied pressure on the defence ministry and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to demolish Susiya.

The paper reports that Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit “also supports postponing the evacuation so as to conduct further legal examinations, and has made his position clear to [Defence Minister Avigdor] Lieberman”.

Earlier this year, Lieberman vowed that there would be no more delays in the implementation of the demolition orders for all of Susiya’s structures.

Read: Israel delivers demolition notices to Arabs in Jerusalem

The court petition to demolish the village was submitted in 2014 by right-wing NGO Regavim, “funded by settler-group Amana and regional authorities in the West Bank”, said Haaretz.

“The government has asked every few weeks over the past year-and-a-half for a postponement for presenting the defence minister’s position on the matter,” it added.