First publication: The Regavim movement, which led the legal struggle against the illegal outpost of Khan al-Ahmar, which is located near Highway 1 in the E1 area, documented five new structures erected in the illegal outpost this week.
One of the structures was erected far from the compound and indicates an attempt to expand westward, despite the state's repeated commitments to the court that it would demolish the outpost, which has become a symbol of lack of governance.
The Supreme Court has ruled six times that the structures on the site are illegal, and has repeatedly approved the demolition orders against them. In October 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the compound would be evacuated shortly, but the demolition was not carried out.
The issue of Khan Yunis has come up many times during the repeated rounds of elections in recent years, and many politicians have spoken and explained the strategic importance of the E1 area and even pledged to evacuate the outpost if elected. However, in the last hearing held in the Supreme Court in May 2023, the state claimed that this is not the right time for evacuation due to political considerations.
In light of the documentation, Regavim sent an urgent letter to Defense Minister Israel Katz, the Commander of the Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, and Head of the Civil Administration, Brigadier General Hisham Ibrahim, demanding that immediate steps be taken against the illegal construction additions in Khan al-Ahmar.
The letter states that the illegal construction constitutes "a worrying trend of expanding illegal takeover of Area C, with an emphasis on the areas surrounding Jerusalem, in a way that creates a real strategic threat in the form of a territorial contiguity around Jerusalem, the capital of Israel."
The letter continues, "The issue of the illegal compound has been discussed repeatedly in the judicial courts, and they have repeatedly emphasized your duty to uphold and enforce the law regarding the rampant illegal construction there, to the point that the name of the place has become a joke and ab example of the lack of governance and a reward for crime. Therefore, there is special importance for enforcing the law at this specific compound. The new illegal construction is but a necessary consequence of your continued refusal to enforce the law, a 'loophole that invites thieves,' and in the absence of enforcement, criminals celebrate."
Moshe Shmueli, the field coordinator for the Regavim movement, added: "When we close our eyes to the problem, it does not disappear but rather expands. The construction criminals and the anti-Semitic supporters behind them work every day to establish the Palestinian state, and they cannot in any way be above the law. The time has come to take responsibility - better late than never."