Palestinian Bedouins Refuse to Surrender for ’Israeli’ Eviction Plan

Local Editor

Bedouin children play football barefoot in the dirt of their West Bank encampment, but they may not be able to enjoy the dusty piece of land for much longer.

Khan al-Ahmar is one of more than 20 Palestinian Bedouin communities facing forced "Israeli" eviction.

Under the "Israeli" plan, 12,000 Bedouin from three tribes would be relocated.

The Bedouin see the move as a land grab and are refusing to move from an area they have lived in for decades since being forced out of their ancestral homes in the Occupied al-Naqab desert.

"This is neither an economic nor a social issue -- this is about al-Quds," said Eid Khamis Sweilem, a spokesman for the Jahalin tribe.

"Israel" seeks to extend its hold on lands east of al-Quds.

The Bedouin encampments of Khan al-Ahmar -- home to roughly 800 people -- lie east of "Maaleh Adumim", one of the largest settlements in the Occupied West Bank.

The expulsion would free up land for the settlement to expand eastwards, tightening "Israel's" grip on a corridor extending from Occupied east al-Quds to the Dead Sea.

Palestinians say "Israeli" plans to build in the area threaten to sever the northern West Bank from the south.

"If we don't stay, there will never be a Palestinian state. So we won't move," he said.

Rights groups have for years condemned "Israel's" attempts to forcibly transfer Palestinians, including Bedouin, within the 60 percent of the West Bank under its full control.

The Jahalin Bedouin are one of a number of clans of traditionally nomadic desert-dwelling Arabs.

Most were forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands in al-Naqab.
Sweilem said he would only accept relocation if it was to al-Naqab.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team