Links to the Birth Place of Christianity

On the road going down from Jerusalem to Jericho

The Jahalin are a Palestinian Bedouin tribe who live beside the road going down from Jerusalem to Jericho in the West Bank at a desert encampment at Khan al-Ahmar. The Bedouin have lived in this area since the early 1950’s when they were forced to move from land in the Negev desert and made refugees shortly after the creation of the State of Israel.

Now the Israeli government, which illegally occupies the West Bank, wants to clear this area of Arabs and develop it for the benefit of  Israeli settlers and ‘relocate’ the Bedouin to a nearby rubbish tip. Khan al-Ahmar encampment contains the only Bedouin school in the area, built of mud and old tyres; the school is under threat of demolition by the Israeli authorities.

The Palestinian Bedouin suffer from severe poverty. They are herders, yet are denied land on which to graze their animals. Their camels are often confiscated by the occupiers. They are often harassed by settlers. Over half of Bedouin are food insecure and they face discrimination which is akin to apartheid – for example, a 500 shekel fine if they dare to go to an Israeli shopping mall.

These pictures were taken by our former Minister, Brian Jolly, when he visited the Jahalin community at Khan al-Ahmar. Please pray that the oppression of these poor people will cease, and they will have a secure and prosperous future.