UN Palestinian Rights Committee Formally Condemns Khan al-Ahmar Eviction Order as War Crime

The Bureau of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) issued a formal condemnation on June 4, 2026 of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's order to evict and demolish Khan al-Ahmar — a Bedouin village of approximately 300 people in the E1 area east of Jerusalem. The UN stated the eviction constitutes forced transfer of civilians and is a war crime under international law, reiterating demands to halt the E1 settlement plan which, if implemented, would sever Palestinian territorial contiguity between the northern and southern West Bank. Separately, OHCHR reiterated its demand that Israel halt forcible displacement and settlement expansion in the E1 corridor. The order was issued by Smotrich on May 19, 2026 — the same day he announced the ICC had sought an arrest warrant against him — and is seen as retaliatory defiance of international legal pressure. Khan al-Ahmar has been under Israeli demolition orders since 2011; the ICJ ordered Israel to halt demolition in 2019. Execution of the eviction order would trigger the most significant E1 settlement advance in years and is opposed by the EU, US State Department, and all permanent UNSC members.