Agnese Boffano
The New Arab / May 20, 2026
Israel’s far-right finance minister has ordered plans to expel Palestinians from Khan al-Ahmar amid fears of ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem.
London – Palestinians in the East Jerusalem Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar are facing the imminent threat of forced displacement after Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered preparations for the expulsion of its residents.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Smotrich claimed he had been informed that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague was seeking an arrest warrant against him, though he did not specify the source of the information, as ICC proceedings remain confidential.
He described efforts to prosecute Israeli officials over alleged war crimes as “a declaration of war” and vowed to “fight back with a vengeance”, announcing he would move to sign an evacuation order targeting Khan al-Ahmar.
The Bedouin village, home to around 300 Palestinians, lies in Area C of the occupied West Bank under full Israeli military control.
Residents have for years endured repeated threats of demolition, violent settler attacks, and harassment by Israeli forces aimed at driving them off their land.
Smotrich said he was coordinating with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military to secure approval for the expulsion order, which would still require cabinet authorisation.
If confirmed, the ICC move would mark the third attempt to seek arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials, following warrants issued in November 2024 against Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Israel’s war on Gaza.
Aseel Baidoun, Deputy Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), said the threat “amounts to a brazen act of collective punishment against an entire Palestinian community”.
Speaking to The New Arab, community leader Eid Abu Khamis said 26 Bedouin communities from the Jahalin tribe are currently under threat from Israeli authorities in East Jerusalem.
“The children, the women, and all the people – we are all afraid,” he said, describing constant fear among residents waiting for possible demolitions. “We don’t know when the bulldozers will come. It could be in the middle of the night.”
The community is also home to a primary school serving more than 170 Bedouin children, which now faces the threat of demolition. Abu Khamis said children had already begun asking where they would go if their school was destroyed.
The Jerusalem Human Rights Consortium expressed “grave concern” over the escalation, saying “the timing of this announcement further underscores the extent to which Israeli occupying authorities continue to pursue unlawful policies despite growing international scrutiny and accountability efforts”.
Khan al-Ahmar at epicentre of settlement expansion
Smotrich has repeatedly drawn international condemnation for extremist rhetoric advocating the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements and the permanent seizure of Palestinian land.
Alongside National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, he has been one of the leading advocates of the controversial E1 settlement project, which seeks to expand Israeli settlements between Jerusalem and the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.
The project would effectively split the occupied West Bank in two and further isolate East Jerusalem from surrounding Palestinian communities, undermining any possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state.
Smotrich has openly declared his intention to “bury” the prospect of Palestinian statehood.
Khan al-Ahmar sits at the heart of the E1 corridor, surrounded by expanding Israeli settlements along Highway 1. While Israeli settlements continue to grow, Palestinians in the same area are routinely denied building permits and face demolition orders.
“Khan al-Ahmar has for years symbolised the broader coercive environment imposed on Palestinian communities in Area C,” the Jerusalem Human Rights Consortium said, pointing to discriminatory Israeli planning policies that restrict Palestinian development while facilitating settlement expansion.
“These are not merely administrative measures,” the group added. “They form part of a systematic policy aimed at altering the demographic composition of the occupied Palestinian territory and consolidating Israeli control over strategic areas, particularly in and around the E1 corridor.”
Abu Khamis also warned of escalating settler violence across the occupied West Bank, expressing fears that settlers emboldened by government backing could directly participate in future expulsions.
“Israel’s goal is to cut the West Bank and destroy Palestinian communities from East Jerusalem to the Dead Sea,” he said, stressing the strategic importance of the area for surrounding Bedouin communities.
Medical Aid for Palestinians described the planned expulsion as “the latest step towards deepening Israel’s unlawful annexation and illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank”, warning that the move risked amounting to forcible transfer and ethnic cleansing.
Under international law, the forcible transfer of protected persons in occupied territory is prohibited and may constitute a war crime – a reality hanging heavily over Khan al-Ahmar, where families remain under constant threat of displacement from land they have lived on for decades.
Agnese Boffano is a journalist at The New Arab
