HAIDER
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- May 21, 2006
- Messages
- 33,771
- Reaction score
- 14
- Country
- Location
Khan al-Ahmar is east of Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank, and surrounded by illegal Jewish settlements Ma'ale Adumim and Kfar Adumim.
Israeli occupation forces assaulted Bedouins and activists who were resisting the illegal demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, in the occupied West Bank, Wednesday.
In the early morning, military vehicles and bulldozers surrounded the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in preparation for its imminent demolition. The village, which is located near the occupied city of Jerusalem and next to one of Israel’s largest illegal settlements in the West Bank, Ma'ale Adumim, has been targeted for years.
At least 181 people live in Khan al-Ahmar. According to one of its leaders, Abu Khamis, the Bedouin families who live there were previously expelled from the Negev. Now they are facing a second forced relocation.
The organization Stop the Wall explains that the village is made up of "some 40 families belonging to the Jahalin tribe. They have been ethnically cleansed from their homes in the Naqab (the Negev) in 1951 and then resettled in the hills East of Jerusalem."
The group added that the families further "leased the land that they now live on from the Palestinian landowner in Anata. After the occupation of the West Bank (1967), Israel confiscated the land and then allocated it for the establishment of the illegal settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. Today, the community is squeezed between the Israeli settlements of Ma’ale Adumim and Kfar Adumim."
The people of Khan al-Ahmar have received international support and solidarity. Activists from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee have been accompanying the Bedouin community joining their resistance. The village has also received the support of neighboring Bedouin community Jabal al baba, also known as the Pope Mountain community, which is also facing threats of demolition.