Israel Warned That Razing Bedouin Village Could Be War Crime
Image by getty images
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor warned Israel that the planned demolition of a Bedouin village in the West Bank may constitute a war crime.
In a statement issued hours after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip destroyed a home in Beersheba, Fatou Bensouda also warned that she is “similarly alarmed by the continued violence, perpetrated by actors on both sides, at the Gaza border with Israel.” Israel retaliated for the bombing by striking 20 Hamas targets in the coastal strip.
Israel’s Supreme Court in September rejected a petition by residents of Khan al-Amar to halt the village’s demolition. Israel says the homes there were built illegally and has offered to resettle the residents in a nearby area. Critics of the demolition believe that Israel is tearing down the village in order to make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.
The international community and human rights organizations have rallied in support of Khan al-Amar.
“It bears recalling, as a general matter, that extensive destruction of property without military necessity and population transfers in an occupied territory constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute,” Bensouda cautioned in Wednesday’s statement.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
