Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinian Bedouins, major new report finds Submitted by MEE staff on Wed, 06/10/2026 - 12:32 Forcible transfer of Palestinian Bedouins in West Bank is not led by rogue extremists but by Israeli state, new Amnesty report says Israeli forces guard a bulldozer reportedly operating on Palestinian lands near the village of Dura, west of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, on 9 June 2026 (Hazem Bader/AFP) Off A campaign of ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Bedouins in the occupied West Bank is being driven not by rogue extremists, but by the Israeli state, according to a major new report. Amnesty International published the new 150-page report on Wednesday. It found that Israeli authorities were committing the crime against humanity of forcible transfer, through a “state-driven campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank”. Area C makes up around 60 percent of the total area of the West Bank, and is under military and civil control of Israeli authorities - in contravention of international law. According to Amnesty’s report, the Israeli government has expanded gun licences and the number of armed settlers in the area, increased funding for illegal settlements, and accelerated the construction of settlements and the legalisation of outposts. Outposts are settlements built in contravention of Israeli law, which are increasingly being legalised by the authorities. All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. The report also found that control of parts of Area C was being handed over to pro-settlement Israeli civilian authorities, and that measures to seize more Palestinian land in Area C were being expanded. 'Not the work of rogue actors' “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,” said Agnes Callamard, the head of Amnesty International. “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.” Bedouin families left homeless as Israel demolishes Negev village Read More » Earlier this week, the UK , Australia, Canada, France , New Zealand and Norway sanctioned six organisations and an individual for their involvement in illegal Israeli annexation of the West Bank. The countries said that “for too long, violent settlers have been able to act with near impunity, and settlement expansion and creation of outposts continue with the support and facilitation of the Government of Israel”.