Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has warned of harmful consequences to Israel should the state proceed with the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin herding village in the West Bank.
He weighed in on the matter on Sunday in a letter to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit.
“The evacuation carries with it many heavy challenges, both internally and internationally, and for that reason it can lead to many political consequences,” Lapid wrote.
Last Thursday, the state sought a delay of two months until September 14 before it submits its response to the High Court of Justice with respect to the advisability of demolishing the community.
Bennett had in the past supported the demolition of the illegally built herding village of some 180 Jahalin Bedouin, who live in a small encampment of huts and tents perched on Route 1 just below the Kfar Adumim settlement.
The High Court of Justice had ruled in 2018 that the community could be razed, but it did not set a date for such an evacuation.
Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed action on it after former International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda warned against it.
The right-wing NGO Regavim has since petitioned the High Court to force the IDF to carry out the court’s ruling. Netanyahu sought to delay the court proceedings, even as he told the court he still thought the community should be relocated.
“The issue of the Khan al-Ahmar evacuation has been on the table of the Israel governments for years,” Lapid wrote.
He urged Bennett, Mandelblit and the new government to explore the topic with “a new set of eyes.”
It should do so “independently and without being reliant on the conclusions of previous governments, and taking into consideration the fact that this is an especially sensitive matter,” Lapid wrote.