The Israeli occupation authorities today notified a resident of the village of al-Tuwani, east of the town of Yatta in the southern West Bank province of Hebron, of a military order to demolish a poultry farm he owns within 96 hours.
Fouad al-Imour, a local anti-colonization activist, told WAFA that the Israeli army notified Suleiman al-Adra, a local Palestinian resident, to empty the farm within 96 hours in order to demolish it.
The village is located in an area classified as Area C which makes more than two-thirds of the occupied West Bank under full Israeli military and civil control where construction permits are almost impossible to obtain for the local Palestinian population, forcing many of them to embark on construction despite the risk of possible demolition.
The village is also part of the Masafer Yatta region, where the Israeli Supreme Court recently upheld the demolition of 12 Palestinian hamlets in the region, which could potentially leave over 1,300 Palestinian residents of the area homeless.
Masafer Yatta residents and Israeli rights groups say that many of the Palestinian families have been permanently residing in the 3,000-hectare area since before Israel captured the West Bank in June 1967. Their eviction would constitute a breach of international law.
In a statement, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, said: “The justices have thus proved once again that the occupied cannot expect justice from the occupier’s court.”
“The decision, weaving baseless legal interpretation with de-contextualized facts, makes it clear that there is no crime which the high court justices will not find a way to legitimize.”
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which along with Masafer Yatta residents petitioned against the expulsion, said the verdict would have “unprecedented consequences.”
“The Supreme Court has officially authorized leaving entire families, with their children and their elderly, without a roof over their heads,” ACRI said in a statement.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)