Amnesty accuses Israel's government of 'ethnic cleansing' of
Palestinians from the West Bank
[June 11, 2026]
By JULIA FRANKEL
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 a core component of a state-sanctioned campaign of ethnic cleansing,"
said Agnès Callamard, 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.
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Palestinian children go through a vehicles tunnel on their way home,
after receiving their year end reports from their school, in the
West Bank Bedouin hamlets of Khan al-Ahmar, Wednesday, June 10,
2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
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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