Washington — Amnesty International has condemned the "deep discrimination" of an Israeli court after it ruled to demolish the village of Ras Jrabah in the Negev region of southern Israel and to evict its 500 Palestinian Bedouin residents. 

The international rights group said that the decision, which would pave the way to build a new neighborhood for the Israeli city of Dimona, testifies to the ongoing practice of "apartheid" carried out by Israel. 

On Thursday, the Be'er Sehva Magistrate's Court ordered the Palestinians community in Ras Jrabah to vacate their homes and pay a fine of about 117,000 shekels ($31,700).

The authorities refused for the people to merge into the new neighborhood of Dimono, and will instead be transferred to the nearby Bedouin town of Qasr al-Sir.

“This judgment shows how Israel's deeply discriminatory laws around land and property ownership are used to enforce apartheid against Palestinian citizens of Israel, who are systematically denied the same rights as Jewish Israelis,” Heba Morayef, the Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said.

"This judgment underscores the need to dismantle Israel’s apartheid system, right now. The international community must put pressure on Israeli authorities to scrap these cruel plans, and end their policy of forcibly evicting Palestinians in the Negev/Naqab,” she added.