Amnesty: Israel Supreme Court 'approves a war crime'

Israeli forces can be seen violently attacking Palestinians as they evict them from their homes in Khan Al-Ahmar village of Jerusalem on 4 July 2018 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

Israel’s Supreme Court has approved a war crime, Amnesty International stated yesterday, responding to the latest decision that paves the way for Israeli authorities to demolish the Palestinian village of Khan Al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank.

The Supreme Court justices ruled this week, for the second time in less than two months, that the planned destruction of the entire community can proceed.

Responding yesterday, the international rights group slammed the ruling.

With this shameful and manifestly unlawful ruling the Supreme Court has confirmed a pattern of complicity in the crime of forcible transfer of Palestinian communities for the expansion of Jewish only settlements

Saleh Higazi, head of office in Jerusalem for Amnesty International.

“The court has not only completely denied the petitioners the protection provided to them by International Humanitarian Law, it has also validated the discriminatory policies of the Israeli authorities,” Higazi continued.

Read: Palestinian protest in support of Khan Al-Ahmar

“If the international community does not immediately take the necessary action to stop this crime from taking place, thousands of other Palestinians surrounding Jerusalem and in the Jordan Valley will now face an imminent risk of forced displacement.”

Amnesty International further noted that Israel’s policy of transferring its citizens to live in illegal settlements in occupied territory “violates international law and is a war crime”.

Khan Al-Ahmar is one of 46 Palestinian communities in the central occupied West Bank “that Israel wants to forcibly transfer to make way for illegal Jewish-only settlements”, Amnesty added.

“Forcible transfer of people under occupation is a serious breach of the IV Geneva Convention,” Amnesty stated. “The deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory constitutes a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute”.

Read: Israel planned Khan Al-Ahmar demolition 40 years ago

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.