France calls on Israel not to demolish Khan Al-Ahmar

The French foreign ministry yesterday called on the Israeli occupation authorities to “permanently abandon plans to demolish Khan Al-Ahmar”, Quds Press reported.

In a statement, the French foreign ministry also called on Israel to “remove the uncertainty surrounding the fate of this village, which is located in an area that is key to the contiguity of a future Palestinian state and therefore the viability of the two-state solution.”

The statement also said that Paris is “worried” that the Israeli authorities are to forcefully expel the residents of Khan Al-Ahmar.

“France, in collaboration with its European partners, has repeatedly called on the Israeli authorities not to proceed with the destruction of Khan Al-Ahmar and the forced evacuation of its inhabitants,” the statement said.

Some 200 residents, 95 per cent refugees, live in the Bedouin village of Khan Al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem. They face the threat of forcible eviction and expulsion by the Israeli occupation army.

Israel, which has long sought to clear the Arab nomads from tracts of land between the settlements of Maale Adumim and Kfar Adumim, said Khan al-Ahmar was built without the required permits. Palestinians say such documents are impossible to obtain.

The Palestinians say razing the village’s tents and tin shacks is part of an Israeli plan to create an arc of Jewish settlements that would effectively cut off East Jerusalem from the West Bank, areas captured by Israel in a 1967 war.

Most countries consider settlements built by Israel on land it captured in 1967 as illegal and say they reduce and fragment the territory Palestinians seek for a viable state. Israel disputes this.

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