diff --git a/hack/make-rules/clean.sh b/hack/make-rules/clean.sh
index 9305c8df6c2..7e45ef44c44 100755
--- a/hack/make-rules/clean.sh
+++ b/hack/make-rules/clean.sh
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@ CLEAN_PATTERNS=(
   "doc_tmp"
   "((?!staging\/src\/k8s\.io\/apiextensions-apiserver\/pkg\/generated\/openapi).)*/zz_generated.openapi.go"
   "test/e2e/generated/bindata.go"
+  # TODO(bentheelder): remove this pattern after bazel is not in any supported releases
+  # see: https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/2420
+  "bazel-.*"
 )
 
 for pattern in "${CLEAN_PATTERNS[@]}"; do