Israel motorists stoned near illegal Bedouin outpost

Arabs hurled rocks at passing Israeli cars from a Bedouin encampment long considered a strategic threat. 

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli cars driving past Khan al-Ahmar, an illegal Bedouin encampment, were stoned by Arabs.

The small assemblage of huts housing around 200 Bedouin, including 90 children, was established illegally in an area known as E-1, which falls under Israeli sovereignty. Built right next  to Highway 1, Israel considers the encampment a strategic danger.

The state’s fears seem to have been borne out as stone-throwers attacked Israeli cars traveling between the Israeli towns of Kfar Adumim and Mishor Adumim.

“I was driving towards Mishor Adumim,”  one driver, Reuven Tzinani, of Mitzpeh Yericho, told Arutz7 news. “As I was passing Khan al-Ahmar, I felt and heard something hit the car, and immediately afterwards the passenger-side window of the car was smashed.” He was not injured.

A long battle

For 10 years, Khan al-Ahmar has fought demolition. In September, Israel’s Supreme Court finally rejected the last of its appeals and ordered it removed.

However, last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the demolition delayed to buy time for a negotiated settlement with the residents. Critics from his coalition suggested he was reacting to a threat from the International Criminal Court warning that destroying Khan al-Ahmar could constitute a war crime.

According to Arutz7, Yisrael Gantz, deputy council chief for the Binyamin Regional Council, said that the attack shows that Khan al-Ahmar needs to be evacauted without further delay and the prime minister’s attempts to come to an agreement are misguided.