RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- The prime minister in Ramallah met Tuesday with an Austrian social democrat politician and called for international action to stop Israel's violations of international law.
Salam Fayyad told Hannes Swoboda that Israel's violations were "endangering the two-state solution," and called for European and international intervention to stop plans to demolish eight villages.
Fayyad said Israel's plan, disclosed Monday by Israeli media, will displace 1,500 Palestinians.
According to the Haaretz newspaper, the demolitions are to allow Israel to create a space for its army to conduct training exercises.
Residents of the south Hebron villages will be allowed to access their land for farming on weekends and Jewish holidays, and during two one-month periods each year, when the army is not training, Haaretz said.
Israel regards the 1,500 residents of Khirbet al-Majaz, Khirbet al-Tabban, Sfai, Khirbet al-Fakheit, Halaweh, Mirkez, Jinba, and Kharoubeh as squatters, although the villages predate the establishment of the state of Israel by over 100 years.
Previous evacuation orders issued against the villages were frozen by Israel's High Court of Justice.
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