Israel’s war minister Avigdor Lieberman sent a letter to eight European ambassadors in Israel slamming them for a joint statement signed by their countries in which they criticized the Israeli government’s plan to demolish a Palestinian Bedouin village.
The ambassadors from Belgium France the Netherlands Germany Italy Sweden Poland and Britain reportedly received a letter from Lieberman last week calling their joint statement on the demolition of the Bedouin village Khan al-Ahmar “absurd”.
“The statement invokes the absurd claim that relocating the residents to proper homes nearby will somehow preclude an eventual political resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” the letter said.
Lieberman responded to a joint statement by the eight countries last week in which they called “upon the Israeli authorities to reconsider their decision to demolish Khan al-Ahmar” arguing it would be “very serious and would severely threaten the viability of the two-state solution and undermine prospects for peace.”
“The idea that moving a group of some 100 people within a five kilometer radius will prevent a resolution to such a complex historical conflict is hysterical nonsense” Lieberman claimed.
“Israel expects to be treated with the same measure of dignity and respect for its judicial institutions and internal affairs as each of your governments rightly expects for its own. We regard anything less as an expression of injustice and discrimination unworthy of our friendly bilateral relations and of accepted norms governing the conduct of ties between sovereign nations” Lieberman’s letter concluded.
In May after nearly nine years of legal battles Israel’s High Court approved the government’s plan to raze Khan al-Ahmar. This ruling was frozen in July. The court said last month that the village would ultimately have to be demolished.
Residents rejected offers from the Israeli occupation to be forcibly deported elsewhere. Following the decision to demolish the village the European Union stated that it expects Israeli authorities to reconsider the decision in light of international law and a future solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel’s settlement policy which the EU and international law consider illegal has long been the subject of global criticism as Palestinians have seen the prospects of a contiguous future Palestinian state diminish with the gradual expansion of Jewish-only settlement in the last several decades.
UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov echoed the EU’s statement saying:”Demolitions undermine prospect for two state solution and are against international law.”
The demolition of the village is due to happen any day now since the deadline for the residents to evacuate has passed.
