15 illegally built Jewish settler-occupied homes will be removed from private Palestinian-owned land following a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court.Security forces – on the court’s order – will be charged to demolish the settlement, which is located in the Occupied West Bank, over the next few days. However, the forced mini-demolition is only taking place on a legal ownership technicality since the entire Netiv Ha’avot settlement did not receive authorization from the Israeli Government.
“All settlement is illegal and must be removed. Israel is trying to fool world public opinion by removing some homes here and there while it continues to build settlements,” Wassel Abu Youssef, a Palestine Liberation Organization official, said.
Hundreds of Israeli flag-carrying pro-occupation protesters turned out to obstruct the removal of the structures in the illegal settlement in the Palestinian territory, Reuters reported, adding that a security officer was observed comforting one of the persons the group was instructed to evict.
The Israeli Government later announced that it will compensate the families whose homes are to be destroyed and rehouse them on adjacent tracts, the ownership of which cannot be legally proven by any individual Palestinian. The remaining houses will be granted legal status and designated an Israeli Government-approved neighborhood, officials said.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank were constructed on lands that were captured in the 1967 Middle East war. A large number of the world governments view the occupation as illegal.
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