A group of Likud MKs visited an illegal Bedouin encampment near Jerusalem Monday morning, as some members of the coalition government called for the encampment’s evacuation.
Likud lawmakers joined activists from the Regavim watchdog group, which monitors illegal construction in the Arab sector, for a first-hand look at Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin encampment built on Israeli land next to the town of Mishor Adumim, east of Jerusalem.
The visit comes amid renewed calls for the demolition of the illegal settlement.
While the Civil Administration issued demolition orders years ago, with the Supreme Court rejected appeals by residents, successive governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett, and Yair Lapid have delayed implementation of the orders.
The government has sought to reach an agreement with the squatters, securing their peaceful relocation to an alternative site.
In a statement Monday, Regavim criticized recent relocation plans, noting that they would allow the squatters to resettle at an adjacent plot, overlooking Route 1, Israel’s primary east-west traffic artery.
Monday’s visit, Regavim said, is aimed at helping coalition lawmakers “to understand why Khan al-Ahmar is the flagship of the Palestinian Authority's annexation project, and to learn about the ridiculous and dangerous ‘alternative’ suggested up by outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz - a far worse alternative than the present situation.”
“The site Gantz earmarked for relocating the squatters is 300 meters away from the current site of the outpost, which the High Court of Justice has declared illegal again and again – five times in total.”
“Gantz's alternative site has no infrastructure; what it does have is an even more commanding position over Route 1, in the heart of a strategically crucial area that has never had any Arab population.”
“This relocation option would legalize the first PA foothold but certainly not the last (there are more than 80 'Khan al-Ahmars' in the E1 region with no less or more basis for legalization than this one).”
“Meanwhile, the state has already invested approximately NIS 80 million of Israeli taxpayers' money in a normal, logical alternative site, where it has prepared infrastructure, roads, electricity, water, sewage, a health clinic and school - on state land just outside Abu Dis, where the Bedouin town of Khan al-Ahmar would be contiguous with the other half of their own tribe and have full access both to PA-controlled Jerusalem neighborhoods and to their places of employment and livelihood in the Israeli communities.”