Amnesty International Accuses Israel of Forcibly Evicting Bedouin Communities in West Bank

Amnesty International has released a report detailing Israel's alleged forced eviction campaigns against Bedouin communities and Palestinian shepherds across the West Bank. The organization asserted that these nomadic and pastoralist communities are entitled to full international legal protection, regardless of administrative complexities or territorial status.

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These nomadic and pastoralist communities retain full rights to international legal protection. This protection, the organization argued, must be upheld despite complex administrative hurdles and unrecognized territorial status.

The report, titled "Erasing anything Palestinian: Israel's ethnic cleansing of West Bank Bedouin and herding communities," documented 27 nomadic and farming communities in Area C that faced displacement or immediate eviction threats between 2023 and 2025. Amnesty's research involved analyzing over 420 videos and images, interviewing 45 Palestinian residents, and scrutinizing official documents, court rulings, satellite imagery, and UN data.

Usman Hamid, Executive Director of Amnesty International Indonesia, stressed that human rights protections are universal. He stated, "I don't think there's any reason for any country, including the Palestinian authorities, to use the pretext that the Bedouin or shepherd communities are outside the jurisdiction of international legal protection or national law."

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I don't think there's any reason for any country, including the Palestinian authorities, to use the pretext that the Bedouin or shepherd communities are outside the jurisdiction of international legal protection or national law.

Grazia Careccia, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, explained that many of the Bedouin communities featured are descendants of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war, having settled in the West Bank after being expelled from territories now within Israel. She noted that these communities reside in areas lacking official recognition, hindering development and access to basic services. Their vulnerability is heightened as they occupy strategic lands, including water-rich areas in the Jordan Valley.

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They reside in areas that have difficulty obtaining official recognition, which cripples local development and blocks access to basic services.

Amnesty has categorized Israel’s actions as deliberate crimes against humanity executed through forced displacement. The report outlines accelerated annexation efforts and sustained campaigns of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population. Careccia directly accused the Israeli government of orchestrating policies designed to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their ancestral lands, citing the significant expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

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The Israeli government has actively permitted the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. Our research this year reveals that the number of illegal structures has skyrocketed to 16,000 uni