Israel upholds expulsion order against West Bank hamlets

A stockyard that suffered damage following a settlers’ attack from nearby settlement outposts on the Bedouin community, in the West Bank village of al-Mufagara, near Hebron, in September 2021 (Nasser Nasser/AP)

Israel’s Supreme Court has upheld a long-standing expulsion order against eight Palestinian hamlets in the occupied West Bank, potentially leaving at least 1,000 people homeless, an Israeli rights group representing the villagers said.

The verdict, issued late on Wednesday as Israel largely shut down for its Independence Day, marks the end of a more than two-decade legal struggle by Palestinians in the Masafer Yatta region of the southern West Bank to maintain communities they say go back decades.