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Forcible exodus haunts Khirbet Susiya Palestinian viallgers

RAMALLAH, July 30 (KUNA) -- Khirbet Susiya villagers of West Bank city of Al-Khalil are facing the imminent threat expulsion from their homes after the Israeli High Court's approval of government plans to demolish their homes and seize their land even prior to a hearing scheduled for their appeal.
In a statement to KUNA, Head of the Palestinian Municipal Council Jihad Nawabah said that the Israeli Army's Civil Adminstration Department has sent the council an official letter about the plan to demolish the village homes before August 3rd.
He pointed out that the Israeli court has ruled in favor of the expulsion plans even after the villagers handed it their land ownership documents.
"This is the second forcible exodus of the desperate people of Khirbet Susiya, who were expelled from their homes in a nearby area by the Israeli forces in 1968," Nawabah told KUNA.
The displacing of Khirbet Susiya villagers is part of the non-stop Israeli measures to usurp the Palestinian land in the West Bank to change the demographic charasteristics of the occupied area.
"We are expecting expulsion from our homes at any time," he lamented.
The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, known as B'Tselem, condemned the Israeli governments' systematic forcible expulsion of Palestinians from their homes.
It added that the move is politically motivated and has nothing to do with laws or court orders.
"It should be emphasized that the demolition policy applied by the Israeli authorities in Area C, of which the planned demolition of Susiya forms part, is not based on considerations of planning, building, law and order. Rather, it constitutes the cynical manipulation of planning laws in order to restrict the presence of the Palestinian population and to expand the settlement enterprise," it has said.
"If the demolition is executed, this will create irreversible damage and immense suffering for the residents of Susiya." It underlined that the international occupation law prohibits both the demolition of homes in such circumstances and the forcible transfer of an occupied population.
The Israeli rights group stated that of the buildings slated for demolition by the Civil Administration, 21 were constructed with funding from European governments.
It added that the heads of all the diplomatic missions of the EU member states in Palestine toured Susiya last month and urged the Israeli government to refrain from demolishing the village. (end) nq.ibi