Likud MK Anat Berko toured the illegal Bedouin outpost of Khan al-Ahmar on Sunday morning, accompanied by Israeli police and members of the Regavim organization, and called for its immediate evacuation.
The illegal community of Khan al-Ahmar, first established in the 1990s, is home to between 170 and 180 Bedouin squatters who settled on a strip of land adjacent to the Israeli town of Kfar Adumim, east of Jerusalem.
Israeli courts have repeatedly upheld demolition orders issued against the illegal community, culminating in the Supreme Court’s final rejection of the residents’ claims in a ruling in September. While the cabinet last month instructed that the demolition of the site be postponed, the prime minister has since insisted that it will take place "very soon."
Berko claimed that Palestinian Authority officials "use these communities to prevent the development of the Jewish settlement and seek to create territorial contiguity with Jericho, Ramallah and Bethlehem."
"The absurdity is that the residents are under the terror of the Palestinian Authority. Bedouin are by nature nomadic, they are not supposed to live on permanent land, most of them are not residents of the State of Israel," she added.
"Along the entire route, we see 'Khan al-Ahmars' that are illegal," Berko said. "Enforcement is selective.”
Berko also attacked Europe for supporting the illegal construction. “The Europeans cooperate with violations of the law together with the Palestinian Authority and are active in subversion against the State of Israel."
"When the Iranians called Israel 'a cancerous tumor in the heart of the region,' we did not hear the hypocritical Europeans, except for the Austrian chancellor, who denounced them," she added.
"We have to use an iron fist with every tent and tent set up by the Bedouin or the Palestinian Authority. The prime minister promised that Khan al-Ahmar will be evacuated and I intend to act on this matter," she added.