Some settlers have been stricken with remorse: A group of Kfar Adumim residents broke with those pushing for demolition and asked the court to require a negotiated settlement. One, Sallai Meridor, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, wrote an anguished open letter to his neighbors.

“The Bedouin were here when we arrived,” Mr. Meridor wrote, saying that their presence had not blocked development of the settlement. “What has become of us that we now demand the poor man’s lamb for ourselves as well?”

Yet the government pressed on. Days after the ruling, approval was granted for a new 92-home neighborhood of Kfar Adumim a half-mile from Khan al-Ahmar.

Mr. Lecker said the government had claimed, without any basis, that the Bedouins would welcome life in an urban setting. But those who were moved to Jahalin West years ago say it has been impossible to sustain their way of life. “They’re trying to make us become less of the Bedouins we want to be,” said Muhammad Abu Khalil, 50. “The only things we have in our lives is raising our sheep.”

Some of his former neighbors have gone back to illegal homes in the hills, Mr. Abu Khalil said. Others would like to.

In Khan al-Ahmar, Mr. Abu Khamis says that the Israeli proposal has a fatal flaw: The Palestinian owners of record in Jahalin West — who do not recognize Israel’s confiscation of their property — have threatened to sue, in Palestinian court, to prevent the Khan al-Ahmar Bedouins from moving in.

All of which leaves Mr. Abu Khamis worrying that his neighbors will soon have no place to live.

“They kick you out from here, and then if we go there, it’s somebody else’s land,” he said. “In the U.S., they have people who work for NASA who go up to the moon. I’m hoping they can find someone who can make a planet for me.”