With his grandchildren running behind him, Eid Abu Hamis sits on the floor of a makeshift shack, dipping fresh pita into tehina while picking at a tray of olives.
One of the leaders of the Bedouin Jahalin tribe scattered throughout the mountains that descend from Jerusalem in the direction of the Dead Sea, Abu Hamis has lived in Khan Al Ahmar since he was born, in the mid-1950s. We are sitting inside his family’s compound in a Bedouin Palestinian village that has lived under the specter of evacuation for the last four-and-a-half years.
If there is a place where the contradictions inherent in Israel’s new government come to life, it is this tiny village tucked away along the side of a highway near the Israeli settlement of Kfar Adumim.
On the one hand, Khan Al Ahmar is proof of how governments and particularly prime ministers throw out slogans and don’t act on them.
The village was approved for demolition and evacuation in May 2018. The High Court of Justice, petitioned by the right-wing Regavim Movement, gave the government the green light to dismantle the village and forcibly move its residents elsewhere. At the time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to do so.
“Khan al-Ahmar will be evacuated, with or without an agreement. It will not take weeks; it will be much shorter,” Netanyahu said, more than four years ago. A lot of time has passed – Netanyahu was prime minister for most of it – and Khan al Ahmar is still standing.
What makes this situation ironic is that it was the High Court of Justice that gave the approval to remove the village. That is right. The same court that Netanyahu and his political allies want to demolish, the court that the coalition claims is run by left-wing justices who are all about preventing the government from enacting its policies, is the one which gave Netanyahu the approval to do so.
In an ironic twist, instead of demolishing the village that the court approved for demolition, Netanyahu’s government today prefers to demolish the court. Makes sense, right?
Upcoming turning point
This is all important to keep in mind since on Wednesday, February 1, the state will again have to appear before the court and reveal what it plans to do: will it finally evacuate the 300 or so residents or will it again stall for time as it has repeatedly done in the past?
All indications are that Netanyahu will punt. The reason is twofold: United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to arrive in Israel within days of the court hearing and Netanyahu does not want to sour a meeting whose purpose is to prepare for another meeting he is looking forward to having at the White House next month with President Joe Biden.
In addition, Netanyahu knows that his government is already coming under fire from around the world. The day after National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was here, last week, Netanyahu evacuated a new illegal outpost; on Tuesday, he flew to Jordan to assuage King Abdullah’s concerns over the Temple Mount and on Wednesday, he convened a last-minute press conference to push back against the warnings that his government’s judicial reforms are going to harm Israel’s economy.
Why evacuate Khan al Ahmar and add fuel to the flames? In private talks with some of the Likud members who have been pushing for the evacuation of the village, Netanyahu has said they will need to wait a bit longer. “Now is not the time,” he has said.
A visit to Khan al Ahmar reveals a number of aspects of the story. It is small and made up of just a few-dozen shacks built on wooden stilts and lined with old posters of anything from kitchen stores to sports teams. The men work in odd jobs; the dozens of kids roam around the dirt paths barefoot; sheep graze nearby.
Khan al Ahmar as a symbol
WHY HAS Khan al Ahmar become a symbol? Mostly because the Israeli Right turned it into one due to its location. Located along Road 1, the hamlet is wedged between Maale Adumim and Kfar Adumim. Anyone who dreams of one day urbanizing the entire area would want to remove any obstacles and Khan al Ahmar is one of them.
The court’s approval in 2018 to remove the village was given because while it was built on land that the Palestinian Authority claims belongs to the nearby Palestinian town of Anata, all the structures were built without Civil Administration permits. Since this is land in Area C (under Israeli military and civil control) permits are required.
This explains the pressure on Netanyahu. Last week, he ordered the evacuation of the Or Haim illegal outpost in northern West Bank since it was built without a permit. The same, proponents of the Khan al Ahmar evacuation argue, needs to happen here.
Because of the time that has passed, though, Khan al Ahmar has also become a symbol for the Palestinians and the international community. The European Union is a regular contributor to the community, helping fund a school – interestingly, it is made of tires covered in plaster – and providing the community with a few toilets.
On the school, for example, there is a sign that reads “Humanitarian Support to Palestinians at Risk of Forcible Transfer in the West Bank” and carries the logos of the governments of Belgium, the UK, Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, France and Spain. Ten European nations that care about a tiny and poor Bedouin village.
The battle for a future Palestinian state
The reason is that for the people who oppose the evacuation, Khan al Ahmar is the place where the battle over a future Palestinian state is taking place. It is doubtful that these countries care, particularly about Abu Hamis and his grandchildren. What they want to stop is the expansion of Israeli settlements into more parts of Area C. They want to help Palestinians expand their living quarters in that part of the West Bank to ensure the future viability of a Palestinian state.
Abu Hamis is, surprisingly, not overly concerned about the hearing on Wednesday. He is confident that Netanyahu will not act to evacuate the village due to American and European opposition. “They are the true authority,” he explained.
He is also open to a possible deal that would see the village move but one that is negotiated with the villagers and not determined unilaterally.
According to his version – disputed by Regavim – the villagers came to the Adumim area in 1952, after they were evicted from their homes near Arad. They traveled up from the Negev looking for land that had three qualities: a water source (Khan al Ahmar is near Wadi Qelt), land fit for their sheep to graze (the area is north enough to have vegetation most of the year) and near a population center to sell their wares (Jerusalem is just 30 minutes away).
Until now, Abu Hamis says, the Civil Administration has put forth two proposals: to move near Abu Dis where he says the land is too polluted to be grazed by sheep, or to simply move across the highway and join another offshoot of the Jahalin tribe.
“If they want us to move, they should come and speak with us directly,” he said.
It will be interesting to see what Netanyahu does on Wednesday. On the one hand, he has promised to evacuate the village and is surrounded today by right-wing coalition partners like Itamar Ben-Gvir, who want Khan al Ahmar gone yesterday. On the other hand, Netanyahu knows that a little village is not worth a fight with the world.
What will he do?