Ten leading Democratic Senators have urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to demolish the illegal Palestinian and Beduin villages of Sussiya and Khan Al-Ahmar.
“The displacement of entire communities would be an irreversible step away from a two-state solution and we urge your government to abandon its efforts to destroy these villages,” the senators said in letter they wrote on Thursday.
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Bernie Sanders were the top signatories.
The High Court of Justice is adjudicating the fate of both villages. In addition, the state last week told the HCJ that as a result of internal Civil Administration discussions, there is no immediate threat to Sussiya.
Right-wing activists and Palestinians clash at Sussiya.
It added, however, that in spite of the court case, it believed it could demolish 20 of the 100 tents and shacks that make up the village of 350 people by December 6.
Sussiya’s attorney Quamar Mishirqi-Assad has appealed that demolition declaration.
Non-governmental groups have also launched a campaign in the United States and Great Britain to urge politicians to pressure Israel not to allow the December 6th demolitions or any subsequent ones.
The US senators said they had already been following the fate of these two villages.
“Earlier this year, we were alarmed by the public comments of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, who said that work was being done to implement plans to evacuate the Palestinian villages of Sussiya in the South Hebron Hills and Khan al-Ahmar near Ma’aleh Adumin within a few months,” the senators wrote.
“Instead of forcibly evicting these communities, we encourage your government to fairly re-evaluate Sussiya’s professionally-developed master plan and provide the residents of Khan al-Ahmar equal building rights.
Shabbat in Sussiya
“Your government’s threats to demolish these communities are particularly distressing in light of Israeli Civil Administration to dramatically expand settlements throughout [Area C of] the West Bank,” they wrote.
“We have long championed a two-state solution as a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet, your government’s efforts to forcibly evict entire Palestinian communities and expand settlements throughout the West Bank not only directly imperil a two state solution, but we believe also endanger Israel’s future as a Jewish democracy,” they said.
“We urge you to to change course so that you do not foreclose the possibility of establishing two states for two peoples,” they wrote.
Other signatories to the letter include Senators Patrick Leahy, Richard J. Durbin, Tom Carper, Al Franken, Elizabeth Warren, Martin Heinrich, Jeffrey A. Merkley and Brian Schatz.
The left-wing US group J Street said it was proud to have supported and advocated for the letter.
J Street and J Street U this month “launched a new student-led campaign, “Stop Demolitions, Build Peace,” to raise awareness about the threat that these demolitions pose to the two-state solution and to Palestinian communities,” it said.
“In the absence of serious leadership by the Trump administration to condemn these Israeli policies, it is vital that elected officials and Jewish communal leaders take action to defend Israel’s future,” it said.
Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Iran-news-agency-says-Tehran-closed-border-with-northern-Iraq-507448
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