The Israeli government requested a four-month delay in carrying out a High Court order to evacuate and demolish the illegally built Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar. If approved, the delay would be the ninth postponement of Khan al-Ahmar’s evacuation.
“The political echelon remains firm in its position that the rule of law requires that the demolition orders be implemented,” the government said in its request.
But the postponement was requested, “given the complexity of the issue at hand and its sensitivity, as well as the great interest it arouses among various parties in the international community and its implications for the foreign relations and security of the State of Israel.”
The request drew right-wing fire, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own Likud party.
“Where are the governors? There cannot be one law for the Jews and another law for the Arabs,” tweeted opposition Knesset member Avigdor Liberman.
The Bedouins of the Jahalin tribe built the village’s first structures without permits on state-owned land in the 1970s between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. Its residents — around 200 adults and children — are not Israeli citizens. A decades-long legal battle appeared to end in May 2018 when an Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled the outpost could be demolished and its residents relocated.
In response to a petition filed by Regavim, a non-governmental organization that monitors illegal Palestinian construction and land theft in Judea and Samaria, the High Court ordered the government to explain by February 1, 2023 why it has not evacuated the residents. Regavim was co-founded in 2006 by Betzalel Smotrich, who is now Finance Minister and also oversees the civil administration of Judea and Samaria.
Regavim CEO Meir Deutsch said, “We were hoping to receive a proper response to a national right-wing government as we were promised in the elections. There is no justification for this.”
The Bedouins of Khan al-Ahmar have expressed interest in relocating to the Arad Valley, which is inside Israel. But Israeli officials have warned that granting residency to the Palestinian Authority residents would set a dangerous precedent.
Outwardly, Bedouin leaders say the evacuation is part of an effort to reduce the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem and that they are ready for a confrontation.
But a Bedouin source in Khan al-Ahmar told the Tazpit Press Service earlier in January that there is tension between the Bedouins and the Palestinian Authority.