Steps Israel Is Taking to Clear W.B. Palestinians - Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine

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May272026

Despite Western Pressure The Four Steps Israel Is Taking to Clear Palestinians From West Bank's E1 Area

Wednesday, May 27, 2026 at 10:17PM

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2026-05-27/ty-article/.premium/the-four-steps-israel-is-taking-to-clear-palestinians-from-west-banks-e1/

From the establishment of a crowded Palestinian neighborhood expected to facilitate the expulsion of communities in the area, to a new road that keeps Palestinians out of the region – the Israeli effect could erase Palestinians from the area

by Matan Golan 27 May 2026 Haaretz

Palestinian children in Khan al-Ahmar, located within E1, this week. Credit: Itay Cohen

Israel is currently advancing several construction plans in the section of the West Bank known as E1, and the effect could completely erase Palestinians from the area.

E1, which covers 12 square kilometers (4.6 square miles), connects the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. It is a geographically strategic area that bisects the populated mountain ridge, and for decades it has remained largely undeveloped.

Although the construction plans were laid out during the Rabin government in the early 1990s, they have been frozen since 2005 for political reasons, as well as due to international pressure o

ver concerns that they would thwart the viability of the two-state solution and a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first ordered the E1 construction plans to be advanced in 2012, and approved them in a preliminary process ahead of the February 2020 election.

The government finally approved the plans last August, prompting Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to state that "the Palestinian state is being erased – not with slogans, but with actions." When signing the framework agreement for the project, Netanyahu declared from the podium: "A Palestinian state will not be established."

The density in the neighborhood will be approximately 20 people per dunam (roughly 81 people per acre). In comparison, the planned density in one of the settlement neighborhoods to be built in E1 is six people per dunam.

Last weekend, 11 Western countries announced their intention to impose sanctions against contractors who participate in the Construction and Housing Ministry's bidding process for construction in the area, which is expected to open on June 1. A joint statement by the leaders of Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Norway, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands said that contractors should "be aware of legal and reputational consequences of participating in settlement construction including the risk of involving themselves in serious breaches of international law."

The statement also said that "The E1 settlement development would divide the West Bank in two and mark a serious breach of international law."

Khan al-Ahmar, this week. Last week, Smotrich declared that he would immediately sign an order for the eviction of the Palestinian village. Credit: Itai Cohen

Last week, Smotrich declared that he would immediately sign an order for the eviction of the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar, located within E1, in response to a request by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to issue an arrest warrant against him.

The plan Israel is advancing includes four initiatives and construction plans in E1. The first one is the establishment of an employment and business center in the area that would span over 1,000 dunams (247 acres).

This plan was first approved in 2002 but its implementation was frozen until this past March, when the state invited bids for the construction of the center. Additionally, in December 2025, the Construction and Housing Ministry started a bidding process for the construction of two Jewish neighborhoods in E1 settlements that will include 3,401 housing units.

In January this year, the Israel Defense Forces announced the advancement of the construction of the Fabric of Life road alongside E1, which is intended to be a separate road for Palestinians connecting the south and north of the West Bank and preventing Palestinians access to the area of the Ma'aleh Adumim settlement.

This month, the Civil Administration demolished Palestinian shops along the route of the road, most of them in the Palestinian town of Al-Eizariya. The road is defined as a security road, and therefore doesn't have to undergo a structured planning process that can be effectively appealed. The road was approved in 2020 by then-Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who called it Sovereignty Road.

Far-right Minister Smotrich in the West Bank presenting the plan to build in E1, in August 2025. Credit: Menahem Kahana/AFP

The construction of the road will trap two Palestinian communities between it and Route 1, completely cutting them off from their surroundings – a move expected to accelerate their expulsion. Furthermore, diverting Palestinian traffic from Route 1 to the bypass road will prevent vehicular access to the other communities in the area, effectively cutting them off from the rest of the Palestinian localities in the West Bank, which is also expected to accelerate their expulsion.

"The planned road will allow Israel to annex the entire Ma'aleh Adumim and E1 area and remove Palestinians from it," said the anti-occupation group Peace Now regarding the road's construction. According to the organization, while Israel may claim that Palestinian contiguity from the north of the West Bank to its south is not severed because the transportation continuity is maintained, a single, narrow, winding road cannot serve as territorial contiguity.

Additionally, Israel is currently advancing a plan for the establishment of an urban Palestinian neighborhood near the E1 area, which is expected to facilitate the forced expulsion of communities in the area. Shami Neighborhood is planned as an expansion of the existing Palestinian village of Arab al-Jahalin, and is expected to include 484 housing units on an area of 170 dunams.

The density in the neighborhood will be approximately 20 people per dunam (roughly 81 people per acre). In comparison, the planned density in one of the settlement neighborhoods to be built in E1 is six people per dunam, as presented in 2021 during a discussion on objections to the plan, which was ultimately approved last year.

The plan for the neighborhood's establishment (Master Plan 1627/7) was published by the Civil Administration's Higher Planning Council this past March for the submission of objections. The plan documents state that the project in the Al-Eizariya area is intended for Bedouin who are undergoing an "urbanization process," without explicitly stating which communities the neighborhood is intended for. But in a 2018 High Court of Justice ruling on a petition against the eviction of Khan al-Ahmar, the court presented a framework proposed by the state for the community's relocation to the site.

Khan al-Ahmar, this week. Credit: Itai Cohen

Arab al-Jahalin, also known as Jabal, was established in 1997 – at Israel's initiative – next to the Abu Dis waste site, and approximately 150 Bedouin herding families from the Jahalin tribe were forcibly relocated there as part of the approval of plans to expand Ma'aleh Adumim. According to one of the petitions against the E1 construction plan, the forced relocation was devastating for the families, who were forced to sell their herds due to lack of access to grazing land, but were unable to change their way of life and integrate into the urban labor market.

Israel has attempted to advance the model of concentrating communities into urban compounds several times in the last 15 years, and has approved several minor "expansion" plans for Arab al-Jahalin. In 2011, the Civil Administration worked to relocate Bedouin living in communities east of Jerusalem to a new neighborhood in the village. In 2014, Haaretz reported that the Civil Administration was working to evict Bedouin communities to Arab al-Jahalin. The expansion of the village southward was then frozen after an internal opinion within the Civil Administration was revealed.

A study conducted by the UNRWA refugee agency and the organization Bimkom – Planning and Human Rights, which was published at the time, found that in addition to damaging the health of the Bedouin population, the concentration of the community caused them significant social, economic and personal harm due to the forced change in the residents' way of life as sheep herders.

Approximately 10 Bedouin communities living in the area recently submitted their objections to the plan to the Civil Administration. Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, an architect from Bimkom who assisted them, stated that "this objection reveals that while the eviction of Khan al-Ahmar is being advanced, a plan is simultaneously being advanced that seeks to forcibly concentrate and urbanize the Bedouin communities in the area. This is not just a planning scheme: It is a displacement plan.

"Instead of allowing communities to remain in their place and develop their lives according to their lifestyle, for years the state has been trying to concentrate them in a crowded urban compound to clear the area. Khan al-Ahmar has proven for years that the eviction of Palestinian communities in the West Bank is not a result of 'settler violence from below' but part of a policy that comes from above."

Three petitions have been filed with the High Court against the establishment of the two settlement neighborhoods in E1, and the first hearing is scheduled for June 15. The petitioners argue that the approval process for the plan was carried out unlawfully, ignoring registered Palestinian land rights and the existence of communities in the area. They claim that the plan's implementation will lead to the forced transfer of a protected population, in violation of international law.

The petitioners also argue that the process disregards the principle of equality in planning and constitutes "planning apartheid." The petition mentions a report presented during a discussion in October 2021 on objections to the plan, according to which the density in the planned Israeli neighborhood in E1 is six people per dunam, compared to 20 people per dunam in nearby Al-Eizariya.

Currently, about 10 Bedouin herding communities, numbering approximately 2,500 residents, live in E1 and the adjacent areas. According to the petitions filed with the High Court against the construction plans, the residents of these communities are expected to be uprooted from their homes – either due to anticipated forced expulsion because of the planned construction, or due to indirect pressures that will arise from it, including increased security in the area, road closures, isolation from Palestinian services, and reduction of grazing lands.

One of these communities is Khan al-Ahmar, which is built on West Bank land that was declared as state land in the 1970s. Its eviction was debated six times at the High Court before being approved in 2018. The judges then permitted the state to relocate the residents to Arab al-Jahalin. Despite the court's approval, Israel has not yet expelled the community "for reasons related to state security and its foreign relations," as the state reported in 2023.

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