KHIRBET KARKUR, Israel (AP) — An Israeli hostage rescued from Gaza He received a hero’s welcome, but the reality was also bitter: a large part of the small village where he lives, Khirbet Karkur, is on the verge of being demolished.
Qaid Farhad Alkadi, 52, is one of Israel’s approximately 300,000 Bedouin Arabs, a poor and traditionally nomadic minority that has a complicated relationship with the government and often faces discrimination. Although they are Israeli citizens and some serve in the military, about a third of the Bedouin, including Alkadi, live in villages that the government considers illegal and want to break down.
Since November, about 70 percent of Khirbet Karkur residents have been told the government plans to demolish their homes because they were built without permits in a “protected forest” that is not zoned for housing, a lawyer representing them said. Alkadi’s family has not received notice, but the threat of mass displacement for this close-knit community has put a damper on what has otherwise been a joyous 24 hours.
“It’s so exciting, we didn’t know if he would come back alive or not,” said Muhammad Abu Tailakh, the head of the Khirbet Karkur local council and a public health lecturer at Ben Gurion University in nearby Beersheba. “But the good news is also a bit complicated, because of everything that’s going on.”
Alkadi was greeted by dozens of well-wishers — and a flurry of media — on Wednesday. He was released from the hospital and returned home a day after his dramatic rescue, as he said in grateful phone conversations with Israel’s prime minister and president.
Neighbors and family erected a huge tent in his honor, serving tea and coffee from early morning as they anxiously awaited his arrival. When the clean-shaven but thin Alkadi arrived — seemingly overwhelmed by the attention after 326 days in captivity, much of it in an underground tunnel — he spoke to reporters and pleaded with Israeli leaders to release all the hostages.
“It doesn’t matter if they are Arab or Jewish, they all have a family waiting for them,” said Alkadi, a father of 11 who was abducted by Hamas on October 7 while working as a guard at a packaging factory near the Gaza border.
“They want to feel the joy too,” he said. “I hope, I pray that this stops.”
Alkadi was one of eight Bedouins abducted on October 7. Three are believed to still be in captivity. Two teenagers were released, one was accidentally killed by the Israeli army, and one remains confirmed dead in Gaza.
On October 7, many Bedouins rushed to help visitors to an Israeli music festival, saving hundreds of lives as the army and police were in a state of panic.
A spokesman for the Israel Land Authority said that “in light of the situation” it would not issue a demolition order to the Alkadi family. But it would not comment on the plight of its neighbors or their lawyers’ efforts to save their homes.
On Wednesday, most family members and neighbors tried to focus on the good news, rather than on legal battles that could drag on for years.
“We need to solve this problem so that people here … can have a proper solution that suits the needs of the Bedouins,” said Nasser Amran, 59, a friend of Alkadi. “There is no electricity. For water, they get a pipe from a community and it comes here, but it is still difficult to live in a village without water and electricity as it should be.”
Unknown villages are not connected to the state water, sewer or electricity infrastructure, and the roads to many villages, including Khirbet Karkur, are dusty and potholed. Khirbet Karkur sits in the shadow of a large garbage dump, and the smell of rotting garbage wafts over the short, squat corrugated metal houses. Piles of construction debris and rubbish surround the small cluster of homes.
Israel’s Supreme Court has previously declared many of the unrecognized Bedouin villages illegal. The government has said it is trying to restore order to a lawless area and provide a better quality of life for the impoverished minority.
For decades, Israel has attempted to spreadoff-the-grid Bedouin villagers that it is in their best interest to relocate to government-designated Bedouin townships, where the government can provide them with water, electricity and schools. Bedouin leaders have rejected many of the proposals, saying they destroy their way of life or send them to less attractive areas.
According to the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, which tracks demolitions in the Bedouin community, 2,007 Bedouin buildings were demolished in the first six months of 2024. That is a 51% increase compared to the same period in 2022, when a more moderate government was in power.
The increase in demolition work coincided with the rise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and other members of his party have consistently defended the demolition of illegal Bedouin buildings in the Negev desert and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Ben-Gvir traveled last year witness a demolition himself, expressing his “kudos” and calling the destruction “holy work.”
Abu Tailkha says he and his neighbors want to maintain their rural lifestyle and that the government should officially recognize their villages. He said residents of Khirbet Karkur, who were placed there by the government in the 1950s, would be open to moving to another rural area, but not to a city.
The government wants to move them north to Rahat, an urban Bedouin settlement of about 70,000, said Netta Amar Shiff, a lawyer representing families who have been served with demolition orders. She called it “disgusting cynicism” for the government to say it will not serve Alkadi’s family with legal action.
“If there is a good reason why one person doesn’t get the notice, there is a good reason for everyone,” she said.
Regavim, a right-wing group that researches land issues in Israel and supports the government’s Bedouin relocation plan, said the Bedouins are being offered an excellent deal with free land and that it is in their interest to relocate to benefit from the services that every Israeli citizen is entitled to.
“Israel cannot provide services to people who just build wherever they want,” said Naomi Kahn, head of Regavim’s international department.
The unrecognized villages lack adequate shelters or a warning system for incoming rockets. At least 11 Bedouins have been killed by rockets fired into Israel since the war began.
“The whole country is at war, and I also have to fight against this demolition order,” said Abu Tailkha, the head of the Khirbet Karkur local council.
Abu Tailkha said the country and its leaders embrace Alkadi’s return, but he is not optimistic that real change will happen in their village.
“I think they will soon forget about Farhan and send another round of demolition orders,” he said.
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This story was first published on August 28, 2024. It was updated on August 29, 2024, to correct the number of Bedouin buildings demolished in the first six months of 2024.
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