Court grants state six additional months to plan Khan al-Ahmar razing

• Published date: 29 September 2021
• Author: TOVAH LAZAROFF

"I examined the arguments of the parties on one side and the other," wrote Justice Noam Sohlberg on Wednesday. He set a date of March 6, 2022, for the state to declare its plan for the small community of 180 Jahalin Bedouin that is perched next to Route 1, just before the Kfar Adumim settlement.

"There is no doubt," he warned the state, "that the day is fast approaching when we can no longer come to terms with the lack of clarification with regard to this petition, and [the court] will require a clear decision," Sohlberg said.

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"It is not possible to stretch the rope without at some point saying 'enough is enough.'"

The court had initially refused to entertain any more delays on the state submission of an evacuation plan. It was not moved by the state's explanation that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's government had been formed only in May and had scant time to explore the matter.

The state asked for a delay anyway, explaining that "significant advancement" was being made toward an arrangement that could avoid a forced demolition. It also requested permission to present the court with a secret document.

The right-wing NGO Regavim, which had petitioned the court in March 2019 against the encampment, had objected to the presentation of such a document, arguing that details about the case should be public.

Sohlberg said that given the absence of such a document, it was not possible to properly evaluate the state's request and as such, the request for a delay had been reluctantly granted.

Regavim has been attempting to force the state to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar since 2009, filing six petitions against it, including this last one, none of which led to any action.

In 2018, the court ruled that the state could demolish the structures but did not order it to do so. In the aftermath of the ruling, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to raze the village, but then halted such proceedings when the International...