A week after the eviction, the Jahalin received permission from Israeli authorities to erect tents donated by the Red Cross and UNRWA. On March 1, the Israeli High Court granted an injunction to the Bedouin which allows them to remain at the encampment in the tents on condition that they refrain from building permanent shelters and they enter into negotiations with the Israeli Civil Administration concerning their resettlement. The Bedouin maintain that Israel must allow them to remain at their existing site or allow them to return to their land inside Israel.
The demolition of the encampment in late February disrupted the production season for milk products from the Bedouin herds which provides income for the entire year. A site visit by the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees on the 24-25 February found that of 56 men, women and children who were examined, all had illnesses related to exposure to low temperatures, high winds and rains following the demolition of their homes. After the second demolition the families were forced to sleep under plastic sheeting spread out over boulders. Following the refusal of the Jahalin to leave the site after the demolitions, sewage from Ma'aleh Adumim was "mysteriously" diverted so that it flowed down into the Jahalin encampment.
This latest eviction of the Salamat Jahalin is consistent with Israeli policy which aims to cleanse Area C of the West Bank from its Palestinian population and push the Bedouin and other Palestinians into "reservations" in the small, non-contiguous areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. The large-scale evictions increased dramatically following the signing of the Oslo Accords. In the area between the Dead Sea and Jerusalem where many Jahalin live, the Israeli Civil Administration initially declared an area 3 km in width, extending west from the Dead Sea, to be a closed military zone. This was followed by the closure of a second 3 km zone as "green space."
The Jalahin settled on the land after their expulsion from 1948 Israel with the permission of the Palestinian land owners who are predominantly from the eastern villages of Jerusalem. The land was confiscated in 1981 while the construction of Ma'aleh Adumim settlement began in 1982. In 1997 more than 100 Jahalin Bedouin families were evicted from their campsites and homes to clear West Bank land for settlement expansion. There are some 10,000 Jahalin Bedouin living in the West Bank. The as-Sara'ia Jahalin Bedouin (Article 74, issue 22) continue to remain under the threat of eviction.
