The State’s Attorney filed on Sunday a request for a 48-hour extension in order to complete its submission in the matter of Khan al Ahmar, the latest development in 13 years of court battles.
The deadline for the government’s filing of a response to Regavim’s petition in the Khan al Ahmar case, informing the High Court of Justice when it intends to enforce the demolition orders issued in 2009 against the illegal Palestinian Authority outpost in the Adumim was Sunday at midnight.
In September, the state’s representative requested one more extension, another in a long series of postponements, this time for six months.
In the decision it handed down in September granting the half-year extension, the High Court wrote that “the expectation is that at the end of [the six-month] period a clear decision will be presented to this Court, after all options have been explored and exhausted. The period of mapping out alternatives and exploring courses of action is about to run its course, and what follows is the decision stage. Our aim is to conclude the hearing of this petition immediately after the [government’s updated statement] is submitted, and the plaintiff’s response is received, one way or another.”
Responding to the state’s request for an additional extension, the Regavim Movement’s spokesperson stated that “the state waited nearly until the stroke of midnight, perhaps hoping that Khan al Ahmar would turn into a pumpkin or that Regavim would disappear – but neither of those things has happened. Once again, the government has asked to push off making a decision for a few more days.”
“We have been waiting for years for the State of Israel to decide when it is going to enforce the law at Khan al Ahmar. We are still waiting, and we aren’t going to back down,” the organization stated.
After severely criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu for his inaction on the removal of the illegal Arab outpost of Khan al-Ahmar, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is seeking to further postpone the evacuation, adopting the same line of the Netanyahu government.
In all of its recent campaigns, Bennett’s Yemina Party explained that Netanyahu had to be replaced in order to properly fight the Palestinian Authority’s takeover of Area C in Judea and Samaria, to stop the loss of state land in the Negev to Bedouin squatters, to restore the rule of law to the Galilee and the Negev, and to evacuate the illegal outpost known as Khan al Ahmar.
Bennett’s coalition partners, including Ayelet Shaked, Zeev Elkin, Avigdor Liberman, and Yoaz Handel, were also very loud with their criticism of Netanyahu’s policy, but are doing exactly what he did, and for the same reason – a fear of a diplomatic clash with Europe.
The Khan al Ahmar saga, more than a decade long, has been heard in multiple High Court of Justice petitions submitted by Regavim.
In 2018, the Israeli government announced its intention to complete the evacuation and relocation of the illegal outpost, the flagship of the Palestinian Authority’s systematic program of territorial dominance in Area C, but has since repeatedly postponed the court-ordered action.
The Jahalin Bedouin, the residents of Kahn Al-Ahmar, are an offshoot of a larger tribe based in southern Israel. After a blood feud that occurred within the tribe in the 1970s, some of the families were forced out and migrated north, arriving and settling in their present location after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
The location of the illegal structures is hazardous due to its proximity to Highway 1, a major transportation artery. Khan al Ahmar overlooks the road that connects Jerusalem to the south of Israel in a strategic area.
