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Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Ethnic Cleansing' in West Bank Bedouin Communities
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia /Conflict & Security

Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Ethnic Cleansing' in West Bank Bedouin Communities

From Asharq Al-Awsat · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Amnesty International accused Israel of ethnic cleansing against Bedouin and herding communities in the occupied West Bank.
  • The rights group's report states these actions are designed to accelerate the annexation of Palestinian territory and have led to forced displacement.
  • Amnesty highlighted that the campaign is state-led and state-sponsored, not driven by rogue settlers, and cited violations of international humanitarian law.

Amnesty International has accused Israel of conducting an "ethnic cleansing" campaign against Bedouin and herding communities in the occupied West Bank. The rights group's new report asserts that these measures aim to accelerate the annexation of Palestinian territory.

Israeli authorities are accelerating annexation through a state-driven campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities

— Amnesty InternationalDescribing the alleged campaign in the occupied West Bank.

The report, titled "Erasing anything Palestinian: Israel's ethnic cleansing of West Bank Bedouin and herding communities," found that 27 Bedouin and herding communities, comprising hundreds of Palestinians, have been forcibly displaced between 2023 and 2025 or are at risk of displacement in Area C. This area constitutes 60 percent of the West Bank and is under Israeli control.

It has accelerated settlement expansion and land grabs, increased financial and logistical support to settlements, and it has armed settlers, thereby enabling a brutal state-sanctioned campaign of settler violence

— Amnesty InternationalDetailing the government's role in the alleged campaign.

Amnesty accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of advancing the settler movement's religious nationalist agenda. The report claims the government has increased settlement expansion, land grabs, and support for settlements, while also arming settlers. This, Amnesty stated, enables a "brutal state-sanctioned campaign of settler violence."

The ethnic cleansing campaign is state-led, and state-sponsored, not driven by rogue settlers or so-called extremist ministers

— Amnesty InternationalConcluding the report's findings on the nature of the campaign.

The organization emphasized that the "ethnic cleansing campaign is state-led, and state-sponsored, not driven by rogue settlers or so-called extremist ministers." Amnesty also pointed to Israel's legal responsibilities as an occupying power and its alleged violations of international humanitarian law, including the war crime of unlawful deportation and the crime against humanity of deportation or forcible transfer of population.

These violations include the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer and the crime against humanity of deportation or forcible transfer of population

— Amnesty InternationalListing alleged violations of international humanitarian law.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Asharq Al-Awsat in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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