Unwanted by anyone: Bedouins are the ultimate collateral damage

Published: 12 March 2018

Last updated: 4 March 2024

OVER THE PAST decade, Eid Abu Khamis has trotted the globe in an effort to gain international support for his battle against the looming demolition of his Bedouin community northeast of Jerusalem.

“I’ve seen the entire world, but at the end of the day, all my heart wants is to return to the desert,” said the Jahalin tribe leader in the herding village of Khan al-Ahmar.

But in the power struggle between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank, even a small tract of wasteland can become prime real estate, and the interests of Khamis’s clan aren’t much of a priority for the people deciding their fate.

“Nobody asks the Bedouin what they want,” Khamis said between puffs on his cigarette while sitting in the village’s welcoming tent.

FULL STORY Unwanted by Israel and the PA, Bedouin have nowhere to go but ‘up in the air’ (Times of Israel)

Photo: Bedouin students arrive at school at Khan al-Ahmar, near the Kfar Adumim settlement in the West Bank on September 2, 2016. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)