Portuguese Parliament condemns the Israeli order to expel the inhabitants of Khan al-Ahmar

On 26 September the Portuguese Parliament (Assembly of the Republic) adopted a vote condemning the decision of the Israeli authorities to expel the inhabitants of Khan al-Ahmar.

MPPM [Portugal’s Movement for the Rights of the Palestinian People and for Peace in the Middle East] welcomes this Parliamentary Resolution, which adds its voice to the worldwide condemnation of the most recent example of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population carried out by the Zionist State, with the purpose of expanding its colonization and making a Palestinian state impossible.

The Resolution was proposed by the Parliamentary Group of the Portuguese Communist Party, and was adopted with the votes in favor of the PCP, PEV (Green Party), PS (Socialist Party), BE (Left Bloc) and PAN (People, Animals, Nature party). The PSD (Social-Democratic Party) voted against, and CDS-PP (Democratic-Social Center party) abstained.

The full text of the document is as follows:

«Vote n.º 623/XIII-4 condemning the order of expulsion of the inhabitants of Khan al-Ahmar by the authorities of Israel

The Israeli Government has ordered the inhabitants of the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar, in the occupied West Bank, to abandon it before 1 October.

There are currently 32 families living in this community, with a total of 173 people, including 92 children and teenagers.

Khan al-Ahmar is one of the 46 Palestinian communities that the Israeli authorities want to expel from the so-called E1 Corridor in order to establish a continuity between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, the largest of the illegal Israeli settlements, while cutting off territorial contiguity of the West Bank and trying to make it impossible for East Jerusalem to become the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The destruction of Kahn al-Ahmar is thus part of Israel's policy of calling into question the two-State solution, as stipulated in the UN resolutions that the Portuguese State subscribes to.

As the delegation of the European Parliament which recently visited Khan al-Ahmar has pointed out, «the forcible transfer of people under occupation is a grave breach of international humanitarian law which can amount to a war crime».

This expulsion has already been criticized by the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and several countries, including Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Thus, the Assembly of the Republic, meeting in plenary session:

— Condemns the decision by the Israeli Government to expel the inhabitants of the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar, which is a flagrant violation of international law;
— Calls for an end to the policy of settlements in the Palestinian territories illegally occupied by Israel;
— Calls on the Government to condemn this decision by the Israeli Government and to take appropriate diplomatic steps to reverse this decision.

Assembly of the Republic, September 26, 2018»