“Ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank, a systemic and accelerated plan, denounces Amnesty

Amnesty International (AI) published a forceful report this Wednesday in which it accuses the Government of Israel of directing and promoting a campaign of systemic “ethnic cleansing” against Palestinian Bedouin and pastoralist communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank. The area comprises approximately 62% of the territory, where Israeli control is full, civil and military.

According to the international organization for the defense of human rights, these actions are part of a deliberate strategy to annex the territory (in which, together with Gaza and east Jerusalem, the State of Palestine is intended to be built for a century of these) and constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The dossier, titled Erasure of all things Palestinian: Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Bedouin and pastoralist communities in the West Bank and which you can read in full at the end of this news, points out that the current executive led by Benjamin Netanyahu has made formal annexation an explicit objective.

The organization highlights that, far from being the result of isolated acts committed by radical settlers (more than 700,000, according to the UN) or ministers described as “extremists”, it is an organized state policy. According to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cited in the document, some 5,910 people belonging to 117 Palestinian communities have been forcibly displaced between January 2023 and April 2026 due to the terror exercised by settlers.

These repressive practices include repeated armed raids, physical attacks, death threats and constant attacks on their livelihoods. “What we are witnessing is the unfolding, before the eyes of the entire world and in flagrant violation of international law, of a deliberate and state-directed annexation,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International. “Settler violence is an essential element of a state-sanctioned campaign of ethnic cleansing and fundamental to maintaining Israel’s apartheid system,” he adds.

By the end of April 2026, Israeli settlers had established 363 outposts in the occupied West Bank, according to the NGO Peace Now, cited in the report. Of them, 212 were created from 2023 onwards and “have the active support of the Israeli authorities, who are taking almost no measures to dismantle them despite being illegal under both Israeli and international law.” Dozens are dedicated to herding and serve the settlers to “take over large areas of Palestinian land, taking their flocks to graze on them.” And Area C has a high strategic value due to its natural resources and farmland, AI reminds.

“Almost 58% of the land in Area C is unregistered, and by February 2026, Israeli authorities had already confiscated almost half of it, declaring it state property,” it states.

The report reflects the voice of some local residents, such as Muntasir al-Maliki, from the town of Kufr Malik, who describe the current situation as an “erasure of human beings, trees and stones, and anything that is Palestinian.”

Cooperation and complicity of the armed forces

The report compiles visual evidence and testimonies that point to active cooperation between Israeli security forces and settlers. Amnesty International documented up to 14 cases in which army soldiers were present or directly involved in attacks, sometimes expelling local herders or providing cover for attackers.

Likewise, after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023 (in which the militia party killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251, an action to which Israel responded with a genocide that exceeds, as far as is known, at least 75,000), the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu facilitated the flexibility for the acquisition of firearms and military uniforms among Israeli civilians in the settlements, blurring the line of authority before the Palestinian civilian population.

For its part, the spokesperson unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) formally responded to the organization, assuring that its troops intervene to disperse the altercations and detain civilian suspects who violate the law until the arrival of the police. However, Amnesty maintains that data from the Israeli NGO Yesh Din reveals systemic impunity: 94% of investigations into crimes committed by Israeli civilians against Palestinians between 2005 and 2025 closed without any formal charges.

Given the drastic increase in the construction of settlements and the legalization of outposts (the so-called outposts) considered illegal even under domestic Israeli law, the organization has urged the international community to break what it defines as “excessive passivity” or “complicity.” Amnesty International formally calls on third States to apply unilateral and selective sanctions – such as asset freezes and travel restrictions – against senior officials of the Israeli government, including Prime Minister Netanyahu; the head of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the head of Finance Bezalel Smotrich. These last two have already been banned in Spain or France, for example.

Likewise, AI calls for the total suspension of trade relations, investment and the transfer of weapons that could contribute to consolidating the occupation of Palestinian territory. “The international community has shown signs of complicity or excessive passivity in the face of Israel’s serious and repeated violations of international law and its failure to comply with UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions. It must clearly indicate that the time of tacit acquiescence with the ethnic cleansing and annexation carried out by Israel is over,” Callamard concludes.