Photo by Yafit Gamilah BisoThe State Attorney filed a motion for a continuance with the High Court of Justice today (October 13), seeking to postpone the tomorrow’s scheduled hearing on the petition against the demolition of the village of Khirbat Zanuta in the southern Hebron hills. The motion states that “due to a mistake,” the respondents failed to answer the Court’s question about the fate of the 27 families living in structures with demolition orders pending.
According to the motion, when the error became clear, “representatives of the Civil Authority requested an urgent meeting on the issue. For this purpose representatives of all the relevant offices in the Civil Authority, including infrastructure, planning, oversight and legal, are assembling today.”
Attorney Maskit Bendel of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), who is representing the village residents, agreed to the state’s request.
Attorney Bendel: “We hope that the result of the meeting being conducted in the Civil Authority is a change in the state’s position, and that the residents will be given the possibility of continuing to live their lives in their historic village. It is disappointing that a substantive meeting like this is occurring at such a late juncture in the proceedings rather than before the taking of a decision to obliterate an entire village.”
A new date for the hearing has not been set.
Additional Materials
ACRI’s information sheet on the village of Khirbat Zanuta (in English).
The State Attorney’s formal request to postpone the hearing (in Hebrew).
The State’s response from October 2012 (in Hebrew).
ACRI’s addendum from December 2012 (in Hebrew).
