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Amnesty: Ethnic Cleansing by Israel 06/11 06:16
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Amnesty International accused Israel on Wednesday of
carrying out a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians from the occupied
West Bank with the intention to annex the Palestinian territory.
The accusation came in a new, 149-page report alleging that the forced
displacement of West Bank Palestinians resulted from a concerted state policy,
and not just the actions of violent settlers. While much of the displacement is
driven by settlers who build outposts on Palestinian land, the report asserts
that the process could not occur without the support of the government.
The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements
illegal. Israel, meanwhile, views the West Bank as disputed territory and says
its final status is subject to negotiations.
U.N. data says that over 100 West Bank villages have been fully or partially
emptied out between January 2023 and April 2026. At the same time, the United
Nations has tracked more than 7,280 instances of individual Palestinian
displacement because of demolition of homes and structures by Israeli forces, a
figure that includes people who were displaced more than once.
Israel has in the past denounced such accusations -- including allegations
of "ethnic cleansing," a term referring to forced expulsions of population by
violence -- as reflecting longtime unfair bias. It did not immediately respond
to the report.
Amnesty says settler violence is sanctioned by the state
"These abuses are not the result of a few 'bad apples.' Settler violence is
acorecomponentof a state-sanctioned campaign of ethnic cleansing,"
said AgnsCallamard, the head of Amnesty. "What we are witnessing is
deliberate, state-led annexation, in complete violation of international law
unfolding before the eyes of the entire world."
Israeli leaders have condemned particularly grave violence by Jewish
settlers but tend to denounce them as exceptions. Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's coalition government is dominated by settler leaders and
supporters, and key Cabinet ministers are pushing for a formal annexation of
the territory.
The government has come under heavy criticism from Palestinians and rights
groups for accelerating settlement expansion, which they say is aimed at
preventing the establishment of a future Palestinian state there. Over 700,000
Israelis now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas captured by Israel
in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians as parts of a future
state.
Amnesty says it has identified dozens of bills in Israel's parliament, the
Knesset, to extend Israeli civil law and jurisdiction over settlement blocs, as
well as over courts that try Palestinians. Recently, the parliament approved a
measure making the death penalty the default punishment for West Bank
Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis.
Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would not allow Israel to
annex the West Bank. The U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas
militant group that aimed to stop the war in Gaza also acknowledged Palestinian
aspirations for statehood.
Villages in remote areas are most vulnerable, rights groups say
Amnesty says the large-scale displacement of Palestinian Bedouin communities
in the territory is caused by settler violence, advancement of new settlements
and the Israeli takeover of large swaths of unregistered land. Rights groups
have raised the alarm about this form of displacement before 2023, but say it
dramatically intensified after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel that year that
triggered the war.
Rights groups say Bedouin herding communities in remote areas of the West
Bank are most vulnerable to displacement. Unlike Palestinians in cities and
towns across the West Bank, the villagers are less able to withstand the
pressure from often-armed settlers as they establish new outposts around
Palestinian villages.
The anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now says that 212 of at least 363
existing outposts in the West Bank were created since 2023. The outposts are
built without permission from Israeli authorities, who sometimes dismantle them
but often turn a blind eye or even legalize them retroactively.
Amnesty said its report looked into 27 hamlets and villages in the West Bank
where Palestinians were displaced between 2023 and 2025. Researchers
interviewed dozens of Palestinians and lawyers, spoke with witnesses of settler
violence, watched over 420 videos and analyzed government statements and other
reports.
The group also said the international community has failed to act to stop
the displacement.
Dror Etkes, who runs the settlement watchdog group Kerem Navot, said that
since the October 2023 attack, settlers have taken about 12.5% of West Bank
territory -- land that Palestinians can no longer access or cross safely.
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