MK Bitan visits Khan al-Ahmar
MK Bitan visits Khan al-AhmarRegavim

MK David Bitan (Likud) toured the illegal Bedouin outpost of Khan al-Ahmar on Wednesday, together with the Regavim movement, at the initiative of the National Likud Forum and accompanied by the Israel Police.

Israeli courts have repeatedly upheld demolition orders issued against the illegal Bedouin community, culminating in the Supreme Court’s final rejection of the residents’ claims in a ruling in September.

However, the Israeli cabinet recently adopted a proposal pushed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to postpone the implementation of the evacuation. The delay, which was not given a final deadline, is intended to give the state time to negotiate a possible self-evacuation of the residents to an alternative site in the area.

"We have to evacuate them immediately, and it's time, because there is a court ruling," Bitan said on Wednesday. "Just as we evacuated communities and structures in Israeli settlement following court rulings, even though we did not want to, so too should be done in the Bedouin settlement."

"The European Union's intervention in the matter, to my great regret, is a disgrace,” continued Bitan. “On the international level, such a thing cannot happen and is not happening anywhere else. We see the EU also helping Iran. Something anti-American and anti-Israeli is happening there. Not healthy and not good in international policy. Israel is harmed by this and it should not happen."

At the end of the visit, Bitan declared that "the Likud must, if not now then at least in the next Knesset, apply sovereignty over Area C in order to end this whole matter. All the settlement blocs must be attached to the State of Israel and Israeli law."

Two months have passed since Netanyahu announced that Khan al-Ahmar would be evacuated "very soon", as he put it. Over the past few weeks, a large number of MKs from the Likud have come to visit the site, demanding that the Supreme Court's ruling be implemented and that enforcement be completed.