Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is pushing the coalition government to delay the demolition of an illegal Bedouin town built on state land east of Jerusalem, Channel 12 reported Sunday night.
According to the report, Lapid has petitioned the Cabinet Secretary of the new government, Shalom Shlomo, to once again delay the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar, arguing that the town’s demolition should be called off until the security and foreign policy implications can be assessed.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly instructed the state to dismantle the illegal Bedouin encampment, which is home to some seventy families.
Last November, the Court set a final deadline of July 2021 for the encampment’s demolition, after then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly pushed off the eviction.
Netanyahu had vowed Khan al-Ahmar would be cleared, promising to enforce the court order.
Yediot Aharonot recently published a report claiming that the Jahalin tribe – the Bedouin clan which set up the illegal encampment at Khan al-Ahmar – had recently been offered a deal from the government under which they would voluntarily relocate the town to a nearby site in exchange for legal status.
Another report, published by Globes, claimed that the Jahalin tribe had been discreetly involved in negotiations with the government for a voluntary evacuation in exchange for Israeli residency cards.