20/05/2026 – Union for Justice Foundation
The Bedouin communities east of Jerusalem, particularly Khan al-Ahmar, have been subjected to repeated attacks by settlers under the protection of Israeli military forces, as part of policies aimed at forcibly displacing residents in favor of settlement expansion.
Today, Tuesday, 19/05/2026, the far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that he had signed an order for the immediate evacuation of the “Khan al-Ahmar” community east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. The decision followed a press conference held on Tuesday, during which he accused the Palestinian Authority of being behind what he described as a “secret arrest order against him” allegedly issued by the International Criminal Court, despite the Court having denied, two days earlier, Hebrew media reports concerning arrest warrants against Israeli officials. Smotrich claimed that the ICC is “antisemitic” and stated that Israel “will not accept any failed attempts to impose suicidal security policies against it.”
Israeli Channel 14 quoted Smotrich as saying that his signing of the order to evacuate “Khan al-Ahmar” falls within his ministerial authority, while threatening those he described as his “enemies” by declaring: “This is only the beginning.”
According to the Israeli channel, Smotrich stated: “We have established more than 100 new settlements, along with 160 agricultural outposts that maintain control over more than one million dunams of state land. We are planning, building, paving roads, regulating, and making the pioneering settlement project irreversible.” He added that he had succeeded in fulfilling his duties as Finance Minister and in maintaining the stability of Israel’s economy amid a multi-front war unprecedented since Israel’s establishment, according to his statement.
According to the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the final decision rests with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in coordination with Defense Minister Israel Katz and the Israeli military, and would require explicit approval from the Israeli Security Cabinet due to its implications.
Khan al-Ahmar
Khan al-Ahmar is a small Palestinian Bedouin village located along a highway east of Jerusalem. Since 2009, Israeli authorities have sought to evacuate its residents and demolish the village under the pretext that it lacks legal construction permits. However, residents have strongly resisted the occupation authorities’ measures against the village and have confronted Israeli bulldozers on several occasions.
Khan al-Ahmar consists of very modest structures and includes a mosque and a school built in 2009. More than 150 students study at the school, half of whom come from neighboring communities. The community, located near the Israeli settlements of “Ma’ale Adumim” and “Kfar Adumim” close to Jerusalem, is home to more than 200 Palestinian Bedouins from the Jahalin tribe.
The United Nations has previously issued several statements asserting that the forcible evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar could amount to a “war crime.”
The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Minister Moayad Shaaban, stated that the signing by the extremist Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich of an order pushing for the evacuation of the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar east of occupied Jerusalem represents a dangerous escalation in the policy of forced displacement implemented by the occupation government against the Palestinian people. He added that it blatantly exposes the Israeli right-wing government’s determination to move forward with annexation projects, colonial expansion, and the imposition of facts by force on occupied Palestinian land.
Shaaban affirmed, in a statement issued by the Commission, that the targeting of Khan al-Ahmar comes within the context of a long-term strategic colonial project aimed at the eastern area of occupied Jerusalem. Through this project, the occupying power seeks to establish complete colonial territorial continuity that would separate the northern West Bank from its southern part, effectively eliminating any possibility of establishing a geographically contiguous and viable Palestinian state.
He added that the Khan al-Ahmar community has, over the years, become a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness in the face of uprooting and displacement policies, and a living testament to the colonial nature of the Israeli colonial project. This explains the repeated Israeli insistence on displacing its residents and removing the community entirely, despite broad international opposition to this step, repeated warnings regarding its political, humanitarian, and legal consequences, and, most importantly, the clear position of the International Criminal Court in affirming that the resulting forced displacement constitutes a war crime.
Shaaban pointed out that the policy of forced displacement practiced by the occupation authorities against Palestinian Bedouin and pastoral communities constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the forcible transfer of populations under occupation. He further stated that these practices fall within acts that may amount to war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, due to their direct connection to policies of colonization, annexation, and land confiscation.
The head of the Khan al-Ahmar Community Council, Eid al-Jahalin, stated on Tuesday, 19/05/2026, that Israel’s decision to evacuate the Bedouin community east of Jerusalem aims to separate the northern West Bank from its southern part within the framework of the “Greater Jerusalem” settlement project. Al-Jahalin warned that the decision to displace the community’s residents is “extremely serious” and could be implemented within hours, amid the region’s and the world’s preoccupation with wars and crises. He added that the decision by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to evacuate the community “represents a dangerous step,” stressing that residents are facing “an unknown fate.”
He explained that the danger of the decision “is not limited to the village of Khan al-Ahmar alone,” noting that the community lies in a strategic area east of Jerusalem and that the displacement of its residents “means completing the linkage between Israeli settlements and sealing off Jerusalem from its eastern side.”
He continued: “If this village is uprooted, it will lead to the division of the West Bank into two parts, northern and southern, which is the essence of the Israeli settlement project known as Greater Jerusalem.”
Al-Jahalin also noted that Israel has, for years, sought to implement the “E1” settlement plan, aimed at linking the settlement of “Ma’ale Adumim” with West Jerusalem, thereby isolating Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings and undermining the prospects for establishing a geographically contiguous Palestinian state.
In light of all the above, the Union for Justice Foundation calls upon the international community, the United Nations, and the states parties to the Geneva Conventions to assume their legal, political, and moral responsibilities and to take immediate action to halt the policies of forced displacement and colonial settlement expansion carried out by the occupation government. The Foundation stresses that international silence encourages the occupation authorities to persist in their violations and to undermine the remaining opportunities for achieving a just peace based on international law and internationally recognized resolutions.
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