Bedouins Ousted, Homes Razed Protesters Injured As Police Act To Make Way For Jewish Settlers

As solemn-faced children watched from a nearby rooftop, Israeli soldiers dragged Bedouin tribesmen from their homes Monday and bulldozed the metal shacks to make way for Jewish settlers.

Several Bedouin protesters were hurt in scuffles with hundreds of soldiers and police. One man lost consciousness and was taken away in an ambulance after he was dumped over a 5-foot embankment.

Construction workers loaded the Bedouins’ mattresses, tents and personal belongings onto trucks, and hauled away their goats and sheep.

About 45 families from the Jahalin Bedouin tribe have lived and grazed their animals for decades on land east of Jerusalem. In recent years, that land has been swallowed up by the red-roofed houses of Maale Adumim, the largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

After a protracted court battle, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in May that the Jahalin must leave the area. The first shacks were bulldozed earlier this month. Four more families - about 30 people - were displaced Monday.

Peter Lerner, a spokesman for Israel’s military government in the West Bank, said the Jahalin were living illegally on state land.

“We hope that the other families will understand that we are serious,” he said. “We will continue to evacuate them if they do not pick themselves up and move.”

The Jahalin were offered land near Abu Dis, a West Bank village on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but leaders of the tribe rejected it, saying the rocky site is too close to the city garbage dump.

Lerner said the tribe’s belongings would be moved to the site, which has been supplied with water and electricity.

The transplanted Bedouin were given white canvas tents and metal shipping containers at the new site and were reunited with their goats and sheep. A group of men prayed on a bare hilltop in the mist.

Linda Breyer, who represented the Bedouin in their court battle, said the tribe’s living conditions there would be “abominable.”

“We are now going to see a real shanty slum,” she said.

The Jahalin, who number about 2,000 in the Maale Adumim area, are among tens of thousands of Bedouin living in Israeli-controlled areas.

The following fields overflowed: DATELINE = JAHALIN BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT, WEST BANK