LAST week the Israeli government was given approval from its court to bulldoze a Bedouin village and steal more land in the West Bank. Its court – and in someone else’s country – Palestine.

I have visited the lovely Bedouin village of Khan al Ahmar.

Now the ultra-right wing Israeli government is going to demolish it because it doesn’t have ‘the necessary building permissions’.

These are Bedouins who have lived peacefully in the desert for years. The people there are peaceful, lovely. The little school is a great community asset that the Bedouin have invested in. Khan al Ahmar is in Palestine. It is not in Israel.

The motives? The Israeli government wants to surround/encircle East Jerusalem (which is in Palestine), taking it over and forcing out the remaining Palestinians by oppressing them with greater population numbers.

The Bedouin, who have inhabited the desert landscape, are simply in the way of that unnecessary urban expansion and any rights they have to live there have all now been removed. Imagine being told suddenly, and for no reason, you can’t live in your house.

The decision by Israel’s High Court to approve the demolition and forcible transfer of the Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan al Ahmar is a disgrace. The verdict by Justice Sohlberg rejects out of hand the petition by the people of Khan al Ahmar against the demolition of their community and school.

Itay Epshtain of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has written: “The Israeli High Court of Justice issues a ruling today in the case of Khan Al Ahmar, turning down the petition to overturn the demolition orders issued by the Israeli Military Commander. It further authorised the forcible transfer of the community to the designated relocation site in Abu Dis.

“Wanton and extensive destruction of property - now imminent - and the forcible transfer, including by coercion, of the protected Palestinian population constitutes a grave breach of International Humanitarian Law, codified as a war crime.

“The Court, in sanctioning these acts, have not rendered them legal in any way, and shares in the responsibility for the commission of a serious violation of international law.”