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Commuters along the four-lane road from Jerusalem to Jericho may not notice this small Bedouin village of less than 200 people nestled in the hollow of two hills. Tents hoisted with chipped scrap wood and sand-covered corrugated iron huts shelter formerly nomadic families who settled after the Israeli army expelled them from the southern desert seven decades ago. Some residents work in nearby factories owned by Israeli settlers. Other flocks of sheep and goats on hot rocky terrain.
But the modest appearance of Khan al-Ahmar belies its importance to many Palestinians as the keystone of their struggle for independence – a community whose location is so strategic After years of resistance against Israeli demolition orders that say the improvised village of the occupied West Bank is illegally built, last week brought what appeared to be the final preparations for its destruction.
Security forces declared the area military zone closed and prevented journalists and diplomats from entering. Bulldozers accompanied by military escorts climbed and began to level the ground.
In the upper part of the village, Tahreer Abu Dahouk, mother of four children under 10, was in her kitchen. A large blue plastic barrel held water, charred pots and pans clinging to wooden hangers, and the roof was blackened with soot from a fire pit. "We sleep frightened, we wake up scared, they're serious," she said, as border police in gray uniforms patrolled the outside.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces injured 35 Palestinians and arrested others, according to the United Nations. An Israeli soldier was also injured. "It was war here," said Abu Dahouk, who was married in the village 14 years ago.
Bedouin villagers claim that they are scared. Photo: Mohamad Torokman / Reuters
On the outside of his house is a small garden in the desert hills, a solitary grenadier carrying light pink fruit. "We are settled now," she said. "We refuse to leave, leave us alone, it is the best place for us."
Khan al-Ahmar is one of many communities in the West Bank under threat. Since its inhabitants arrived decades ago as refugees, Israeli settlements built on occupied land – with water and electricity – have sprouted on the surrounding hills.
By cons, the Jahalin tribe in Khan al-Ahmar they can wander with their livestock and the Israeli authorities have not connected their homes to running water, electricity or a sewerage network. They have portable toilets, although opening their doors shows that they're just a closed box with a hole in the ground.
Houses were torn down in the past because their construction was declared illegal while building permits are almost impossible for Palestinians.
About 2 km further north is the Israeli settlement of Kfar Adumim, which intends to extend closer to Khan al-Ahmar. On Thursday, settlers brought Israeli flags to a hill overlooking the village to show their support for the demolition.
Others, a small group of Kfar Adumim, opposed their neighbors and lobbied for the Bedouins to stay. saying that communities can coexist.
But the struggle is greater than that of two communities. The Palestinian government warns that the withdrawal from the village is part of a broader effort to annex the West Bank.
One of the few remaining Palestinian sites east of Jerusalem, its disappearance would contribute to the encirclement of the holy city by Jewish settlements. side, effectively blocking the entire West Bank. The move would isolate East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as their future capital.
Other Israeli constructions in the region, along a road leading to the Dead Sea, would divide the occupied Palestinian territories in two, cutting off the north from the south.
Palestinian protesters trying to prevent an Israeli tractor from entering Khan al-Ahmar . Photography: Abir Sultan / EPA
There would be no continuous Palestinian land on which to build a state, already deeply fragmented by military rule, as well as walls, roads and settlements built by Israel. "If this community disappears, the north will disappear from the south," said resident Faisal Abu Dahouk, 43. For him, the moment of the demolition is not a coincidence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was supported by the Trump administration, which has already declared the capital of Jerusalem Israel and reduced aid to Palestinians. Trump's ambbadador to Israel, David Friedman, is an uncompromising pro-colonizing advocate.
"They gave them an agreement," said Abu Dahouk about Trump and Israel. In recent days, there has been a wave of demolitions across the West Bank, displacing dozens of Palestinians.
Israeli authorities claim to have offered the villagers of Khan al-Ahmar a relocation site, although it is only a few hundred. The Palestinian government says that a forced transfer of people from their homes by an occupying power is a war crime. And foreign governments warn that the location of Khan al-Ahmar makes it essential to the two moribund state solution.
Britain's state minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, told the Commons last week that the demolition was "fundamentally false". But in almost an hour of questioning of deputies, the minister was informed that repeated convictions were not enough and that additional measures, such as economic sanctions on settlements or measures to support the Palestinian state, were necessary. the government makes a two-state solution a geographical impossibility … it is time for the United Kingdom to lead the world's great nations to recognize the Palestinian state, and to do so immediately while it remains a State to recognize "Emily Thornberry, Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the shadow
It is unclear if international pressure has worked.Late Thursday, the Israeli High Court granted a temporary injunction on the demolition until Wednesday
The stay followed a petition from the residents of the village, the last of the hundreds of attempts over the years to help the community.In 2009, a school was built with funds from the community. 39 EU from rubber tires and mud to circumvent the Israeli rules banning construction with cement.But the authorities have again ordered that it be closed.
At school the week last, play nes children played in the astroturf garden and swayed tree branches. Some gathered at the fence and looked through the big yellow bulldozer flattening the road to the outside.
Abu Dahouk was sitting nearby. "They choked us," he said.
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