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forces destroyed Suleiman Qaed's small cinderblock house and the trailer home an aid group sent him as a replacement. Even the Red Cross tent his family now calls home appears at risk of being torn down, with Israeli officers taking pictures of it and warning him that it's in an illegal location.
• But Qaed, 54, fears far worse is in store -- the dismantling of his entire Bedouin community called Jabal al-Baba. The hilltop encampment of shacks and sheep pens is located just east of Jerusalem in one of the most strategic areas of the West Bank. Its fate could help determine if setting up a Palestinian state next to Israel will soon no longer be possible.
• Leaders of the area's Jahalin tribe, rights activists and international aid officials believe the demolitions in Jabal al-Baba and eviction orders for another village are part of a push by Israel to relocate hundreds of Palestinian Bedouins and make way for Israeli settlements. Jabal al-Baba sits on land earmarked for a settlement for 20,000 Israelis, known as E-1.
• "We fear it and we expect it," said Qaed, a blind father of eight.
• Israeli officials confirmed plans to relocate Bedouins but said discussions with the communities are continuing. The Bedouins would be concentrated in more urban settings, including a new town in the West Bank's Jordan Valley.
• ___
Obama health secretary nominee Burwell makes first appearance before Senate committee
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's nominee to take over the federal health care agency -- and assume responsibility for his health care overhaul -- is making her first appearance before senators who will help decide her confirmation.
• Sylvia Mathews Burwell was to testify Thursday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the first of two Senate committees that will hold hearings on her nomination.
• Burwell is Obama's choice to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who resigned last month after presiding over the passage of the health law and the disastrous rollout of the federal enrollment website. Sebelius left just as the law had begun to recover with stronger-than-expected sign-up numbers.
• Burwell is seen as a safe pick, not least because she was unanimously confirmed by the Senate last year as Obama's budget director.
• Her confirmation to the HHS post is unlikely to go so smoothly, however, even (Continued on page 33)
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