Israel on Sunday gave residents of a Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank just over a week to clear out before the village is demolished. The village of Khan al-Ahmar, with a total of 180 residents, rests on a desert hillside next to an Israeli highway running from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. Israeli authorities, who say the village was built without proper permits, plan to demolish the site and move the village to another area about 7 miles away. Some residents reacted with defiance Sunday when Israeli security forces handed out notices telling residents to voluntarily leave and take down their buildings by Oct. 1. “We will not voluntarily evacuate the place,” resident Faisal Abu Dahuk told Reuters. “The occupation forces that have an army and weapons can evacuate us by force, but there is no other place to go and we refuse to be moved anywhere else.” Palestinians view the move as an Israeli effort to cut the West Bank off from East Jerusalem.
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