Shaaban: The Decision to Evacuate Khan al-Ahmar is a Serious Colonial Escalation Within the Framework of the Annexation Project and Isolation of Jerusalem

SadaNews - The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority, Minister Muayyad Shaaban, stated that the signing by the extremist Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich of the order to push for the evacuation of the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar east of occupied Jerusalem represents a serious escalation in the policy of forcible displacement implemented by the occupation government against our Palestinian people. It blatantly reveals the Israeli right-wing government's determination to proceed with the implementation of annexation and colonial expansion projects and impose realities by force on the occupied Palestinian land.

Shaaban confirmed that targeting Khan al-Ahmar is part of a long-term strategic settlement project aimed at the eastern region of occupied Jerusalem, through which the occupation state seeks to create complete settler geographical connectivity that separates northern from southern West Bank and effectively eliminates any possibility of establishing a geographically contiguous and viable Palestinian state.

He added that for the past several years, the Khan al-Ahmar community has become a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness in the face of uprooting and displacement policies, and a living testimony to the colonial nature of the Israeli settlement project. This explains the repeated Israeli insistence on displacing its residents and completely removing the community, despite widespread international rejection of this step and repeated warnings of its political, humanitarian, and legal dangers. Most importantly, the clear stance of the International Criminal Court reinforcing the crime of forced displacement arising from this act as a war crime.

Shaaban pointed out that the policy of forcible displacement practiced by the occupation authorities against Palestinian Bedouin and pastoral communities constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the forced transfer of populations under occupation. Moreover, these practices fall under acts that may amount to war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, due to their direct connection to settlement, annexation, and land confiscation policies.

He warned that implementing the decision to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar would set a dangerous precedent that would open the door to hastening the displacement of dozens of other Palestinian communities in the vicinity of Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, as part of a broad plan aimed at forcibly reshaping the Palestinian geography and emptying wide areas of Palestinian presence in favor of settlement expansion.

Shaaban called on the international community, the United Nations, and the states party to the Geneva Conventions to assume their legal, political, and moral responsibilities and to take immediate action to stop the policies of displacement and colonial settlement carried out by the occupation government. He emphasized that international silence encourages the occupation authorities to persist in their violations and undermines the remaining opportunities for achieving a just peace based on international law and international legitimacy decisions.