Help us stop the demolition and expulsion in Khan Al-Ahmar

Bedouin children arrive at school in Khan Al-Ahmar

Write to the Foreign Secretary and your own MP. 

Israel wants to demolish Khan Al-Ahmar and forcibly relocate the Bedouin who live there. There are 1,400 Palestinians at risk, not just the 170 in the small community immediately affected. If Israel is allowed to do it, it will be a gross violation of the Palestinians human rights, but also the beginning of bisecting the West Bank to make it impossible to create a viable Palestinian state.  The international community finally took action and applied pressure on Israel. The Israeli High Court has temporarily halted the process. It has given the Israeli government until 16 July to make its case for starting demolition work.

Now is the time to act.

Here is our lobbying letter to the new Foreign Secretary and the Minister for the Middle East. You can use it as a model for your own letter. There is also a wealth of information on the issue in our News and Comment posts on 7 and 9 July. 

Send your letter as an e-mail attachment. Foreign Secretary’s address; fcocorrespondence@fco.gov.uk. Your MP’s e-mail address is on his/her page on the Parliament UK website. Please bcc. your letter to: jfjfpexecutive@gmail.com 

Our lobbying letter

Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary 11 July 2018

Rt Hon Alistair Burt, Minister for the Middle East

Dear Mr. Hunt and Mr. Burt,

The residents of the small West Bank village of Kahn Al-Ahmar School Community, aided by Israeli and other activists, have been protesting against the demolition of their village for months. They have also applied unsuccessfully to Israeli courts several times to stop the demolition. However, it was only the intervention of the UK and other governments, the United Nations and the European Union that caused the Israeli High Court to reverse its earlier decisions and halt the demolition work while it reconsiders the issue. The Court has given the Israeli government until 16 July to present its case for carrying out the demolition.

This village of 170 Bedouin is one part of the larger Khan Al-Ahmar cluster of 12 villages, which has a population of about 1,400 people. All 12 villages are threatened with demolition. Even if the Israeli occupation had not become illegal long ago because of its duration, there would be no conceivable military justification for demolishing these villages and forcibly relocating the people who live there. It would be a major denial of the villagers’ human rights under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

However, beyond that, the planned demolitions are a crucial part of Israel’s strategy of removing Palestinian villages from what is known as the E1 Area of the West Bank, between Jerusalem and the big settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, and replacing them with some 3,500 Israeli housing units and associated infrastructure. That would bisect the West Bank from west to east, up to the Jordan Valley, thereby preventing the creation of a viable Palestinian state. Along with Israel’s strategy of keeping the Jordan Valley, it would reserve most of the West Bank’s arable land for permanent Israeli use.

The international community, including the United States, has been preventing Israel from implementing this strategy for 15 years, but the US, under Donald Trump’s presidency, cannot be relied on to maintain that policy. Therefore, it is up to the UK and other governments, acting in concert, to make it clear to the Israeli government that Israel will face adverse consequences if it implements the strategy.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur Goodman,
Parliamentary and Diplomatic Liaison Officer

Jews for Justice for Palestinians, London