Settlers set up new illegal outpost near Khan al-Ahmar in occupied Jerusalem

A horde of extremist Jewish settlers established a new illegal settlement outpost on Tuesday near the Bedouin village of Khan Al-Ahmar to the east of occupied Jerusalem, the Palestinian Information Centre has reported.

According to the Head of the village council, Eid Yassin, this settler-colonial outpost is located only 150 metres from Khan Al-Ahmar. He added that the settlers erected a tent and installed power generators in the outpost and started to assault Palestinian Bedouins living in nearby communities.

Yassin warned that these settlers will pose a threat to the Palestinian children in the area as they walk to school at the start of the new academic year early next month.

He said that such settler violations are part of a systematic policy pursued by the Israeli occupation regime against the Bedouin population in the area to force them to leave their tents and evacuate their hamlets as a prelude to establishing Jewish settlements in the Bedouin areas of Jerusalem.

All of Israel’s settlements are illegal under international law. According to international law expert John Dugard writing more than twenty years ago, “Settlements are so clearly illegal… [they] violate Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” So-called settlement outposts are even illegal under Israeli law, although the regime in Tel Aviv usually connects them to the power and water grids and thus legitimises them.

An International Court of Justice advisory opinion issued in 2004 also found that settlements are illegal. Moreover, the ICJ declared in a July advisory opinion that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is “unlawful”. Experts point out that the ICJ’s opinions may be advisory, but the laws and conventions upon which they are based are binding.

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