For two days now, Israel has been investing in Khan al-Akhmar’s infrastructure. Yesterday, heavy machinery drained a large swamp of sewage flowing from nearby settlements, finally tackling a health hazard that has affected the community for years. And today, giant tractors and rollers were leveling truck-loads of turf and paving the still-wet ground. Israel is constructing a road to Khan al-Akhmar, now that it has decided to destroy it.
The facts on the ground are in plain view under the blazing desert sun. In Khan al-Akhmar homes are either tents or tin shacks. The village has no running water, electricity, sewage, medical clinic, and trash collection, and until European donors helped build a structure from recycled tires, children had no school. Although located yards from the main highway leading from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, there is no interchange here, and no road leads to the community. Since the Israel’s 1967 occupation, Khan al-Akhmar has remained off the grid.
The logic informing Israel’s actions becomes clear the minute one looks into the horizon: the settlements are closing in on Khan al-Akhmar. Kfar Edumim, Mishor Edumim, Ma’ale Edumim, and several other Jewish colonies and outposts stifle the dilapidated village. These are green, sprawling suburbs, with highways, fancy schools, cutting edge medical clinics, and all the modern amenities one can think of. They are growing rapidly, too. The municipal area of Ma’ale Edumim is already larger than…