Acceleration of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians must spur global action to halt West Bank annexation, says rights group Amnesty International.
The international community’s tacit or explicit support for Israeli crimes, including genocide and apartheid, or their failure to act resolutely to stop them has emboldened the Israeli authorities to escalate a brutal campaign to forcibly displace Palestinians and expand its control over land in the West Bank, said Amnesty International.
In a new report, the organisation details how Israeli authorities are stepping up annexation through a state-driven campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank, while committing the crime against humanity of forcible transfer.
The report, Erasing anything Palestinian: Israel’s ethnic cleansing of West Bank Bedouin and herding communities, exposes how the Israeli government has made formal annexation an explicit policy objective.
It is implementing the settler movement’s religious nationalist agenda. It has accelerated settlement expansion and land grabs, increased financial and logistical support to settlements, and it has armed settlers, thereby enabling a brutal state-sanctioned campaign of settler violence and of forced displacement of Palestinians from Area C.
This area constitutes over 60% of the occupied West Bank and has long been central to Israel’s efforts to control land and demographics, given its natural resources, vital grazing and agricultural land, and relatively small Palestinian population.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said: ‘Over the past three and a half years Israeli authorities have accelerated a state-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, uprooting, dispossessing and forcibly transferring Palestinian communities.
‘This is not the work of rogue actors or what the international community has repeatedly labelled as “extremist settlers”, organisations or one or two ministers.
‘What we are witnessing is deliberate, state-led annexation, in complete violation of international law unfolding before the eyes of the entire world.
‘Our report exposes that 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, central to maintaining Israel’s system of apartheid.’
Amnesty International’s research shows Palestinians are being forcibly erased from their ancestral lands, cut off from their livelihoods, and terrorised into fleeing their homes amidst an unprecedented surge in settler attacks, openly condoned and actively facilitated by an Israeli government that openly boasts of its intent to formally annex large swathes of Palestinian land.
Communities across the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills facing displacement continue to resist, determined to remain on the land they have inhabited for generations. Amnesty International is calling on the international community to act urgently to protect them.
Yet despite states’ clear legal obligations to act to bring an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and system of apartheid, the international community has repeatedly failed to act.
Agnès Callamard added: ‘The international community has either been complicit in or far too passive in the face of Israel’s repeated and gross violations of international law, and its flouting of United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions. It must clearly signal that the era of tacit acquiescence to Israel’s ethnic cleansing and annexation is over.’
At least 117 predominantly Bedouin and herding Palestinian communities have faced either full or partial displacement between January 2023 and April 2026, according to OCHA. By the end of April 2026, at least 5,910 people had been forcibly displaced, according to UN data.
This has occurred amid an unprecedented surge in acts of state-backed settler violence. By the end of April 2026, Israeli settlers had established 363 outposts in the occupied West Bank, according to the NGO Peace Now.
Of these, as many as 212 have been created since 2023, with Israeli authorities actively encouraging them, and taking almost no action to dismantle them, even though they are illegal under both Israeli and international law.
They included scores of herding outposts, which are used by settlers to take over large areas of Palestinian land through grazing. This comes on top of land grabs by the Israeli government. Nearly 58% of the land in Area C is unregistered, and by February 2026, Israeli authorities had already seized half of this unregistered land through state land declarations.
Agnès Callamard declared: ‘To world leaders that have framed the annexation and settler violence as isolated acts of “extremist” settlers or ministers and imposed limited sanctions against some individuals or organisations, Amnesty’s report must be a wake-up call.
‘’These limited measures are woefully insufficient to address the state campaign of ethnic cleansing and the systemic violations that have been rapidly increasing before the eyes of the international community.
‘To world leaders who repeatedly say they oppose annexation but do nothing to stop it: know that your inaction is directly fuelling crimes against humanity and has global consequences further eroding the rules-based international order.
‘States, particularly those with influence over Israel, including the USA, the UK, Germany, as well as Italy and other European Union and Arab states, must immediately ban all trade, investment and any form of cooperation or financial assistance that contribute to Israel’s unlawful occupation, system of apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
‘In addition, all states, must impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against Israeli officials directly implicated in these acts, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister for Settlement and National Missions Orit Strock and Defence Minister Israel Katz.’
Amnesty International researched 27 Bedouin and herding communities in Area C that were forcibly displaced between 2023 and 2025 or are at risk of displacement.
The research team interviewed 45 Palestinians from 12 communities, who were either displaced or at risk of displacement, as well as 19 lawyers, activists who witnessed incidents of settler violence, journalists and Israeli and Palestinian NGO representatives.
The organisation also verified more than 420 videos and images, and conducted analysis of official government statements, agreements, legislation, governance changes, court records, maps, satellite imagery, UN and civil society reports, and other open-source material.
The organisation shared its findings with the Israeli authorities on 13 May. The Ministry of Defence responded on 23 May stating that its forces respond to incidents of settler violence, arresting suspects, when necessary, and investigating cases where forces may have failed to comply with orders or failed to intervene to stop settler violence.
Evidence documented by Amnesty International presents a different reality.
Since the 1967 occupation, successive Israeli governments have – with varying degrees of intensity and transparency – pursued Judaization policies which seek to maximise Jewish control over land in the West Bank while minimising Palestinian presence.
Israel’s 37th government, formed in late 2022 and led by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in coalition with Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism parties, has openly and deliberately pursued formal annexation of Area C and the forcible transfer of its Palestinian residents.
The government’s coalition agreements embed settler priorities into state policy and legitimise the settler movement’s vision of ‘Greater Israel’, an ideology that treats the entirety of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) as an integral part of Israel.
It has done so in brazen defiance of multiple UN resolutions and the International Court of Justice’s 2024 Advisory Opinion declaring Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory unlawful.
The intent to remove Palestinians from Area C of the West Bank and annex the land is evidenced by explicit calls by Israeli officials for settlement expansion, the extension of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied territory, measures aimed at minimising Palestinian presence in Area C and public backing for settlers by key government ministers – some of whom are themselves settlers.
It is also demonstrated by annexation-oriented legislation and by measures transferring powers in the West Bank from military to civilian authorities in violation of international humanitarian law.
State intent is further reflected in a surge in state land declarations, simplified procedures for settlement approvals, accelerated settlement expansion, retroactive legalisation of outposts, and increased financial and political support for settler infrastructure, alongside the demolition of Palestinian property and systemic restrictions on Palestinian movement and access to land and water.
Within the first three years of the government’s rule, the Ministry of Settlement and National Missions’ annual budget grew by 122%, reaching NIS 764 million (USD 254.5 million) by 2026.
According to Peace Now, plans for the construction of 50,785 settlement housing units were advanced by the government between 2023 and 2025. In 2025 alone, the Higher Planning Council approved 27,941 units, the highest annual figure ever recorded.
The total number of new settlements declared by the government had reached 102 by 30 April 2026. This is by far the largest number of new settlements authorised by one government in Israel’s history.
In parallel, Israeli authorities demolished 3,407 Palestinian homes and structures in Area C between January 2023 and April 2026, displacing 2,996 Palestinians, according to OCHA.
