In 1883, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine noted "piles of stones" at
Rujm Umm Kheir (
rujm standing for '
cairn'). The Palestinian villagers settled there several decades ago, after Israel expelled them from the
Arad desert, and purchased the land from residents in the Palestinian village of
Yatta. In the wake of the
1948 War and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Umm al-Khair came under
Jordanian rule. During the
Six-Day War in 1967, Umm al-Khair came under
Israeli occupation. According to
David Shulman, the nearby settlement,
Carmel, lies on lands
confiscated from the Bedouins of that village. Human rights activists and reporters have criticized the lack of amenities for the villagers while settlers nearby enjoy modern life. According to
Nicholas Kristof of
The New York Times, in 2010
, Carmel is :'a lovely green oasis that looks like an American suburb. It has lush gardens, kids riding bikes and air-conditioned homes. It also has a gleaming, electrified poultry barn that it runs as a business.' Beyond its barbed wire fencing, the Bedouins of Umm al-Kheir in shanties are denied connection to the electricity grid, barns for their livestock and toilets, and all attempts to build permanent dwellings are demolished. Elad Orian, an Israeli human rights activist, noted that the chickens of Carmel's poultry farm get more electricity and water than the Palestinian Bedouin nearby. Hammerman writes as follows in 2011: :Right next to the stately country homes - complete with air-conditioning, drip-irrigation gardens and goldfish ponds - a few extended families including old men, old women and infants live in dwellings made of tin, cloth and plastic siding, though there are a few cinder-block structures, too. They tread on broken, barren ground. They have no running water. They are not connected to the power grid that lights up every settlement and outpost in this remote region. They have no access road. Umm al-Khair is also the base community for the Good Shepherd Collective, a grassroots organization resisting the intrusive colonization of local land by Israeli settlers. In June 2024, a third of the village still standing was demolished as the IDF bulldozed 11 houses, including 5 tent residences, leaving 50 shepherds homeless. They also destroyed electricity generator, solar cells and water tanks. On 28 July 2025, local activist Awdah Hathaleen
was killed by an Israeli settler in his hometown. ==References==