Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich has said he will sign an order to displace an entire village in the occupied West Bank, shrugging off the possibility of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.
Mr Smotrich, an Israeli settler and the country's Finance Minister, said he had been informed that the war crimes court in The Hague, the Netherlands was seeking a warrant against him.
At a press conference on Tuesday, the minister called the warrant “a declaration of war – and in the face of a declaration of war, we will respond in kind”. He added: “I promise all our enemies, this is just the beginning.”
He now plans to force out residents of the Bedouin village of Khan Al Ahmar, which has long been in Israel's sights. where a previous Israeli government halted demolition plans in 2018 after protests to save the village.
Mr Smotrich did not speculate on the ICC charges. But he has led efforts to accelerate the rate of Israeli settlement during the tenure of the current government. He is a vocal supporter of annexation of the occupied West Bank and has called for settlements in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s decades-long project to settle occupied Palestinian land is widely considered illegal.
Israeli officials have often railed against the ICC, accusing it of targeting their country unfairly. Criticisms reached new heights in November 2024, when the court issued arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the Gaza war. Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice, also in The Hague.
Mr Smotrich went on to threaten the Palestinian Authority, which he accused of fuelling the reported legal action. “The hands are the hands of The Hague, but the voice is the voice of the Palestinian Authority. This organisation launched a war and it will get a war. I am not a submissive Jew,” he said.
Mr Smotrich has a second portfolio in the Israeli Defence Ministry, which gives him authority on civilian matters in the West Bank.
Khan Al Ahmar, home to about 250 Bedouin Palestinian residents, is in Area C of the West Bank over which Israel has full security and civil control under the Oslo Accords.
Israeli attempts to expel the residents and grab their land have been the subject of court battles and media coverage, long before Israel’s current ultranationalist government rapidly accelerated the pace of the country’s illegal settlement programme.
The small stretch of land is of major strategic importance because it is a corridor between the north and south of the West Bank and close to East Jerusalem, which, in the eyes of most of the international community, should one day become a Palestinian state.
