Khan al-Ahmar faces renewed demolition amid fading global attention

Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin village of about 200 people in the occupied West Bank, is once again under demolition orders issued by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to clear land for the E1 settlement corridor. Abu Khamis, head of the village’s Bedouin Council, notes that international attention has moved to Gaza, Lebanon and other crises, reducing the diplomatic pressure that previously stopped bulldozers. The village, located between Jerusalem and Jericho, lies directly in the route of a plan to join East Jerusalem with the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, effectively bisecting Palestinian territory.

Earlier rulings by Israel’s Supreme Court and global protests had delayed demolition, but the new order arrives as settler violence rises and the UN’s International Court of Justice has deemed the occupation illegal. The community’s only elementary school, built with help from the Italian NGO Vento di Terra, now faces demolition, threatening education for roughly 170 Bedouin children. With settlers increasingly attacking villages and infrastructure, residents fear they have lost the protective spotlight that once saved them.