Israeli MKs storm Palestinian village amid talks about demolition

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The Israeli occupation forces stormed on Monday the Palestinian town of Isawiyyeh and the Khan Al-Ahmar community in occupied Al-Quds, where they demolished a greenhouse.

Amid a mass Palestinian rally, locals flooded into Khan Al-Ahmar after Israeli media reported that there was a plan by Knesset Members from the right-wing Likud party in order to pressure party leader Benjamin Netanyahu to evict Palestinians from the village before demolishing it.

The Palestinians gathering in the town came between the Likud storming Khan Al-Ahmar, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported. 

Our correspondent also noted that the Palestinians not backing down against the Israeli occupation led to international pressure that prevented the occupation from demolishing the village.

The village of Khan Al-Ahmar, as well as other nearby communities, is a key link between the center and south of the occupied West Bank, Al Mayadeen's correspondent noted. If the Israeli occupation were to create settlements in this village, there cannot be a connected Palestinian state.

RT @swilkinsonbc "100s of Palestinian residents & int'l supporters protest Ben-Gvir's plan to forcibly displace the Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin villagers @QudsNen pic.twitter.com/355X1y6yHB"

— Richard Hardigan (@RichardHardigan) January 23, 2023

Moreover, Likud Knesset members stormed an area near Khan Al-Ahmar on Monday with the aim of pressuring premier Benjamin Netanyahu to displace the Palestinian locals.

The storming comes days before the Israeli Supreme Court issues a final decision regarding the Israeli government's quest to displace the village's residents. The decision is set to come out at the beginning of February.

Chairman of the World Likud and MK Danny Danon presented the request to the Israeli Supreme Court for the government to demolish Khan Al-Ahmar, and he was leading the MK's storming today.

Meanwhile, far-right Israeli Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir requested that all "illegal" buildings be ruled against equally.

The right-wing extremist's proposition came during a cabinet session in protest against a settlement outpost illegally established by Israeli settlers southeast of Nablus, which they called "Or ha-Hayim" or "The Light of Life", getting evacuated. Ben-Gvir demanded that Khan Al-Ahmar be demolished immediately since illegal Israeli settlers were evicted from the outpost.

Ben-Gvir is one of the most notorious Israeli politicians, as he is infamous for constantly carrying out provocative tours in Al-Aqsa mosque and rallying illegal Israeli settlers that call for the death of Arabs and Palestinians alike while chanting racist slogans and slurs against Muslims and Arabs.

Check out: Itamar Ben-Gvir: Best known for calling to kill Palestinians

Ethnic cleansing

The occupation declaring its intention to displace the people of Khan Al-Ahmar in occupied Al-Quds is nothing new, and it is part of the policy of ethnic cleansing on which the Zionist ideology was founded, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in response to the Israeli violations. "[Ethnic cleansing] was carried out by all the successive Israeli governments."

"Displacing the people who have a right to the land is a racist policy carried out by the Israeli occupation government in a bid to increase the size of their settlements, and this policy will only escalate in light of the current fascist government of settlers," Qassem said.

"The Palestinian people that took to the streets of Khan Al-Ahmar today are declaring that the land is Palestinian, and Palestinians cannot be expelled from it. This battle will end in the interest of our people, who are the true owners of the land," the Hamas spokesperson added.

'Legal' demolition

Back in 2010, the so-called Israeli Civil Administration issued an order to demolish any and all facilities and homes in Khan Al-Ahmar, which saw Palestinians resorting to Israeli courts to appeal against the decision throughout the past few years.

Throughout that period, Palestinians would obtain court orders to postpone the demolitions until the Israeli Supreme Court ratified in May 2018 the Israeli Civil Administration's order to displace the Palestinian people and demolish Arab Bedouin communities.

Khan Al-Ahmar is among various areas targeted by the Israeli occupation to execute its E1 settlement project, through which "Tel Aviv" seeks to usurp Palestinian territories extending from the East of Al-Quds through the Dead Sea, aimed at voiding the area of any Palestinian presence as part of a bigger project that entails splitting the West Bank into two while isolating occupied Al-Quds from the occupied West Bank.

The village acts as an eastern gate to occupied Al-Quds, and the settlement plan failing there means the occupation would have failed to divide the occupied West Bank into cantos, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission explained.