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.
UN 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.
“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.
Last year, US President Donald Trump said he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. The US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group that aimed to stop the war in Gaza also acknowledged Palestinian aspirations for statehood.
