Amnesty accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing of West Bank Bedouin

RAMALLAH: Amnesty International said on Wednesday that Israel is pursuing what it described as an ethnic cleansing campaign against Bedouin and herding communities in the occupied West Bank, arguing that the policy is intended to speed up the annexation of Palestinian land.

In a new report, the rights organisation said rural Palestinian communities have been among the main targets of settler violence and forced displacement. Amnesty said its findings showed that 27 Bedouin and herding communities, comprising hundreds of Palestinians, were forcibly displaced between 2023 and 2025 or remain at risk of displacement in Area C of the West Bank.

Area C makes up 60 percent of the territory and, under the Oslo agreements of the 1990s, remains under full Israeli control. Amnesty’s report, titled Erasing anything Palestinian: Israel’s ethnic cleansing of West Bank Bedouin and herding communities, accused the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of advancing policies aligned with the settler movement’s religious nationalist agenda.

The government had stepped up settlement growth and land seizures, expanded financial and logistical backing for settlements, and armed settlers, which Amnesty said had enabled a state-backed campaign of settler violence. It also pointed to what it called explicit calls by Israeli officials for more settlement expansion and to measures aimed at reducing the Palestinian presence in Area C.

Allegations in the report

Amnesty said the campaign was not the work of isolated settlers or only a handful of far-right ministers, but was directed and supported by the state. The organisation argued that, as the occupying power in the West Bank, Israel has legal obligations under international humanitarian law that it is violating.

Those violations include what Amnesty described as the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer, as well as the crime against humanity of deportation or forcible transfer of population. Bedouin and herding communities, often living in isolated areas and lacking security services, were described as especially exposed to violence and displacement.

The report also referred to far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in a settlement and has openly supported annexing the West Bank to Israel. France banned him on Tuesday for actively promoting that idea.

In May 2026, the UN rights office also raised alarm over indications of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.

Communities under pressure

Since 2023, reporters have witnessed several Bedouin communities in the West Bank leaving under pressure from settler groups, including Ras Ein al-Auja in early 2026. Amnesty places such departures within what it says is a broader pattern of forced displacement affecting Palestinian rural communities.

Speaking in January about the situation in Ras Ein al-Auja, Bedouin resident Farhan Jahaleen described the pressure facing the village.

"What is happening today is the complete collapse of the community as a result of the settlers’ continuous and repeated attacks,"

Amnesty said these developments reflect a wider process reshaping parts of the occupied West Bank through sustained settler violence, displacement and settlement expansion.