Israel upholds expulsion order against West Bank hamlets

By JOSEPH KRAUSS
Associated Press
JERUSALEM (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. The Israeli rights group representing the residents says the Supreme Court issued the verdict late on Wednesday, when Israel was largely shut down for its Independence Day. The verdict marks the end of a more than two-decade legal struggle by Palestinians to remain in their homes in the Masafer Yatta region of the southern West Bank. The military declared the area a firing and training zone in the 1980s. Israeli authorities have argued that the residents only use the area for seasonal agriculture and rejected compromises that would have given them occasional access.