Arabs fight with police during demolition of Khan al-Ahmar.
Arabs fight with police during demolition of Khan al-Ahmar.Wisam Hashlamoun/FLASH90

French-American law professor Frank Romano, 66, was arrested by Israeli police on Friday after he disrupted the demolition of an illegal Bedouin village.

Khan al-Ahmar was built in the 1990s on land belonging to the Israeli town of Kfar Adumim east of Jerusalem. The encampment is home to some 170 Bedouin, who have expanded the community in recent years with the aid of foreign governments.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled against the residents, rejecting their claims and clearing the way for Khan al-Ahmar’s evacuation.

According to reports, Romano stood in front of the demolition vehicles, attempting to block them with his body.

He will be brought for an extension of his arrest on Monday.

"The respondents' response shows that there is a real concern of mass disruptions to order, as well as violence, when the demolition orders are carried out," Supreme Court justice Hanan Meltzer wrote in his ruling. "This is especially true for those who are not residents of the village."

Meltzer also noted the "calls to come and protest, even violent ones, [posted] on social media," and said they go "against the demolition orders."

"We can only express hope that the orders will be carried out peacefully, without any physical opposition, so that the removal of each building's contents can proceed in an orderly fashion.

"Any request to delay the evacuation of the school by claiming that the school year has already begun will be rejected immediately. School was in session and studies had begun even before the school year started in the Palestinian Authority, in a transparent attempt to allow future claims that the school year had already started."

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman tweeted that "Khan al-Ahmar will be evacuated. I thank the Supreme Court justices for their brave and necessary decision, even in the face of [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud] Abbas' hypocrisy and that of the left and European countries. No one is above the law. No one will prevent us from exercising our sovereignty and our responsibility as a state."