Amnesty International Accuses Israel of State-Led Ethnic Cleansing in the West Bank

Amnesty International accused Israel of carrying out a “brutal campaign to forcibly displace Palestinians and expand its control over land in the West Bank,” describing the effort as state-led rather than driven by “rogue settlers.”

Amnesty said the campaign is tied to what it calls Israel’s “unlawful occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing,” and it urged nations to halt trade, cooperation and investment relations that enable those actions.

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The report was released on Wednesday, one day after Israeli settlers attacked the historic Christian village of Taybeh in the West Bank, where settlers set fire to parts of the village and attempted to block Palestinians from putting out the blazes.

Father Bashar Fawadleh, the parish priest of Taybeh, said, “They forbidden us to arrive to the fire, to turn it off.”

In the same account, he added, “I arrived there. I wanted to make something very special for our people, to protect them, but we — shooting three times.”

Amnesty International said the displacement campaign is “not the product of ‘rogue’ settlers, settlers’ organizations or ‘extremist’ government ministers,” and it framed settler violence as “an integral part of an organized state policy.”

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said, “What we are witnessing is deliberate, state-led annexation, in complete violation of international law unfolding before the eyes of the entire world.”

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The report described Area C as a focus of the campaign, saying it is under full Israeli military and administrative control and that it comprises more than 60 percent of the West Bank.

Amnesty International Australia called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong to impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes on senior Israeli officials, and it also called for a full arms embargo and a ban on trade and investment linked to Israeli settlements.

Amnesty International said UN data shows that at least 117 predominantly Bedouin and herding Palestinian communities faced full or partial displacement between January 2023 and April 2026, and that at least 5,910 Palestinians were forcibly displaced by the end of April 2026.

Amnesty International said the international community’s tacit or explicit endorsement of Israeli crimes, including genocide and apartheid, or its failure to take decisive action, has encouraged Israeli authorities to escalate a “brutal campaign of forcible transfer of Palestinians and to expand its control over land in the West Bank.”

The organization said it has identified 363 outposts in the occupied West Bank by the end of April 2026, including 212 established since 2023, and it said Israeli authorities provided active encouragement while taking “virtually no steps to dismantle them.”

Amnesty International also said UN OCHA reports that no fewer than 117 Bedouin and pastoral Palestinian communities were forcibly displaced wholly or partly between January 2023 and April 2026, and that by the end of April 2026 at least 5,910 Palestinians had been forcibly displaced, according to UN data.

Amnesty International Australia urged sanctions on senior Israeli officials including Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Orit Strock, and Israel Katz, and it called for a ban on trade and arms transfers linked to Israel’s occupation.

In the same Amnesty framing, the group warned that the campaign threatens communities with imminent danger of forcible transfer and called for protection for those uprooted from their lands.