From afar, the house is barely distinguishable from the expanse of stone and dust stretching below the Palestinian town of Al-Eizariya. A closer look behind a cluster of olive trees reveals the makeshift home of the Al-Haresh family. The assembly of planks, tarpaulins and sheet metal is where Ismail, a gentle-faced Bedouin man in his fifties, raised his seven children, including 13-year-old Moussa, who serves coffee to visitors. He has lived here for 30 years, supporting his family with the proceeds from his goats, on land that he owns. And here, finally, he waits helplessly for the eviction ordered by Israeli authorities.

Attalla Al-Jahaleen, mayor of Jabal Al-Baba, received the eviction notices in his office two weeks prior. He displayed a simple white sheet with writing in Arabic and Hebrew announcing orders for 120 households to evacuate before bulldozers come to destroy their homes. The operation, approved by the Israeli Civil Administration on Wednesday, August 20, could begin as early as Thursday, August 21, the deadline given to the first evictees.

This would be the first step in a large-scale settlement project for the zone dubbed E1 (for East 1), which sits east of Jerusalem, and thus in occupied Palestinian territory. The project, which enjoys the implicit backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is championed by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the religious nationalist party Mafdal.

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