East Jerusalem - From 1997 to 2007, Israel transferred 150 families from the Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin tribe from their villages in the eastern Jerusalem hinterland to a satellite of the Palestinian town of Al-Eizariya known as Al-Jabal, or the mountain.
Displaced next to a Jerusalem municipal landfill, these Bedouins not only lost their homes but also their traditional way of life, now living in stone townhouses with limited grazing land for their livestock.
The homes they were expelled from are today a part of the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. And just like nearly 30 years ago, the remaining al-Jahalin Bedouins in the East Jerusalem periphery are again being pushed out for the creation of Israel’s E1 settlement. In March 2026, the Israeli government initiated a plan to expand the al-Jabal neighbourhood with 950 housing units on approximately 20 acres of land. While not explicitly saying who the new neighbourhood is for, rights groups and Jahalin Bedouins say the “Shami neighbourhood” is intended to be the site where East Jerusalem Bedouins will be relocated to.
“[It] is meant to be used as the excuse for the justification for the expulsion of the Palestinian communities and say, ‘They have an alternative. We allocated this land for them,’” Hagit Ofran, co-director of Israeli activist group Peace Now’s Settlement Watch project, told The New Arab .
Al-Jabal was established not to offer land and housing for Palestinians, but because Israel’s Supreme Court ruled, at the time of al-Jahalin’s displacement, that the state cannot expel a community without providing them an alternative.
In response to the Shami plan, 208 individuals from the Bedouin communities of Khan al-Ahmar, Arab al-Jahalin, and Abu Nuwar filed an objection with the Israeli planning rights group, Bimkom, against it, arguing the plan is part of efforts to forcibly remove these communities from their homes east of Jerusalem.
The communities’ objection was submitted to the Israel Civil Administration (ICA), the military body overseeing civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank, days after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed an order to dismantle Khan al-Ahmar over the International Criminal Court’s request to issue an arrest warrant against him.
The area designated for expansion isn’t appropriate for Bedouins, the objectors noted.
“There is no freedom of movement for our animals there,” Eid Abu Khamis, community representative of Khan al-Ahmar, told TNA . “This does not suit the Bedouin environment and way of living.”
Bimkom architect, Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, explained that the plan may not even be realised because of how unrealistic the land is for development.
“The topography is extreme. The slopes are irrational for building,” Lifshitz said. “It would be very expensive to build; you would have to dig a huge wall to maintain the ground.”
With this in mind, Lifshitz believes the housing project won’t be implemented and instead it will just be used as a tool to facilitate the expulsion of these Bedouin communities.
“This objection shows that while the removal of Khan al-Ahmar is being advanced, a parallel plan is moving forward that seeks to concentrate and forcibly urbanise Bedouin communities in the area,” Bimkom architect, Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, said. “This is not merely a planning initiative - it is a forcible transfer plan. Part of a larger expulsion strategy In August 2025, the ICA’s Higher Planning Council approved plans to build more than 3,000 homes in the E1 area of the West Bank, an Israeli-designated zone east of Jerusalem and adjacent to Ma’ale Adumim, where approximately 7,000 Bedouins , including the villages of Khan al-Ahmar and Abu Nuwar, reside.
Referred to as a “doomsday settlement,” E1 will bisect the West Bank, eliminating the possibility of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Smotrich even admitted this was the intention of E1, saying “[it] buries the idea of a Palestinian state,” when the settlement was approved.
Since then, the government published a tender for E1’s construction and demolished dozens of Palestinian businesses in Al-Eizariya for the construction of the so-called “ Sovereignty Road ,” a highway that will divert Palestinian traffic away from the E1 area and cut them off entirely from this part of the West Bank, while easing the commute for Israelis traveling from Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem by creating a contiguous Israeli space unencumbered by checkpoints.
Construction of the E1 settlement, the related highway, and now the Shami neighbourhood plan are all components of a wider effort to expel Khan al-Ahmar and the rest of the Bedouin communities located in the E1 area.
“[Israel doesn’t] want to give land to Palestinians. They want land for Israelis,” Ofran said. “This is why they're kicking out all those communities now and pushing everyone to live [in crowded spaces] in Areas A and B [of the West Bank]. That's their goal - to take as much land as possible.”
For decades, Israel has sought to advance E1 and expel Khan al-Ahmar, yet these actions were largely halted due to international pressure.
Several Western countries have called on Israel to halt the controversial settlement and warned contractors not to bid for E1’s tenders as participating in settlement construction would risk “involving themselves in serious breaches of international law."
Abu Khamis explained that international support is crucial at this moment.
“If they are objecting to this, the Israeli order will not come in, and we will not be expelled,” Abu Khamis said.
“If the international community and the Americans do not come to our side, Israel’s decision can be implemented, and we will be kicked out.” Jessica Buxbaum is a Jerusalem-based journalist covering Palestine and Israel. Her work has been featured in Middle East Eye, The National, and Gulf News. Follow her on Twitter: @jess_buxbaum Edited by Charlie Hoyle