JABAL Al-BABA, West Bank: The land available to Atallah Al-Jahalin’s Bedouin community for grazing livestock near Jerusalem has steadily shrunk, as expanding Jewish settlements on Israeli-occupied territory encircle the city and push deeper into the West Bank.
Now, the group of some 80 families faces eviction from the last patches of valley and scrubland they have called home for decades.
Their predicament is tied to an Israeli settlement project that would slice through the West Bank, sever its connection to East Jerusalem, and — according to Israeli officials — “bury” any remaining hope of a future Palestinian state.
As more Western powers move to recognize a Palestinian state amid frustration over the war in Gaza, Palestinians around Jerusalem say they are watching their land vanish under the advance of Israeli cranes and bulldozers. Settlements now form an almost unbroken ring around the city.
“Where else could I go? There is nothing,” said Jahalin, seated beneath a towering cedar tree near Maale Adumim, a settlement that has already grown into a Jewish suburb of Jerusalem on Israeli-occupied Palestinian land.
