US lawmakers urge Blinken to press Israel on Masafer Yatta evictions
The lawmakers called for the administration to pressure Israel on the evictions before President Joe Biden travels to Israel this summer.
As President Joe Biden gears up for an expected trip to Israel next month, a group of US lawmakers are calling on his administration to pressure the Israeli government to halt the looming evictions of more than 1,000 Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank.
Demolitions and evictions in Masafer Yatta, a rural part of the southern West Bank known to Israelis as the South Hebron Hills, are reportedly underway. Earlier this month, Israel’s highest court upheld an expulsion order affecting some 1,200 Palestinians, including some 500 children.
The court ruled the Palestinians were not permanent residents of the land when it was designated a military firing and training zone by Israel in 1981. Rights groups, however, argue some Palestinian families have lived in Masafer Yatta since before Israel captured the West Bank in 1967.
In their letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, more than 80 Democrats and independents from both chambers of Congress wrote that the evictions could undermine efforts to reach a two-state solution.
