Palestinians Blast West Bank Clear-Out
Israel’s plan to evict Palestinians from their West Bank homes to make way for army training zones aims at “evacuating the Palestinians from their land,” Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Wednesday.
“There is no other explanation,” he insisted, while visiting a partially demolished mosque in Mufaqara, where some 1,500 people live without running water or electricity.
Fayyad told European Union diplomats who were also visiting Mufakara that Israeli settlement expansion and forced evictions of Palestinians had undermined the viability of reaching a peaceful solution with Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“As a matter of principle, this is not Israeli land. If they want to practice military training, they should go elsewhere,” he said.
Israel has asked for Supreme Court approval to move the residents to the nearby village of Yatta, where the Defense Ministry argues many of them have permanent homes.
Palestinian villagers say Israel wants to remove them so that nearby Jewish settlements can be expanded. “We are one kilometer away from one settlement, and 700 meters from an outpost. Why aren’t they being evacuated?” asked one resident.
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.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
