AN ethnic cleansing campaign underway in Palestine is not driven by rogue extremists but is led and sponsored by the Israeli state, a major new report has said.
The 150-page Amnesty International report, published on Wednesday, argues that Israeli authorities are “committing the crime against humanity of forcible transfer”, specifically through a “state-driven campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank [which includes about 60% of the total area]”.
It found that the Israeli government had:
- Expanded gun licences and armed settlers.
- Increased funding for settlements and outposts.
- Accelerated settlement construction and legalisation of outposts.
- Shifted more control of Area C to pro-settlement civilian authorities.
- Expanded land-registration and land-seizure mechanisms in Area C.
It comes less than 24 hours after the UK Government joined five allies – Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, and Norway – in sanctioning five organisations and one individual over their involvement in the illegal Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
A joint statement said the sanctions would “hold extremist settlers accountable for the horrific levels of settler violence against Palestinian civilians”.
It further 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”.
However, the six allies took no action against the Israeli government, saying only: “We stand ready to take more action if the Government of Israel does not take urgent steps to address the situation on the ground.”
Agnes 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.”
She 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 UN 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.
"Countries, particularly those with influence over Israel, including the USA, the UK, Germany, as well as Italy and other EU 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.”
Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said that the UK Government’s position “of condemning Israeli settlements while continuing to allow trade with them is not just incoherent but is encouraging the Israeli authorities to escalate its brutal ethnic cleansing campaign in the West Bank”.
She went on: "The International Court of Justice could not have been clearer: states have a legal obligation to stop trade and investment that sustains Israel's unlawful occupation. The UK appears to have ignored that ruling.
“Every day it does so, it remains a participant in fuelling crimes against humanity and the erosion of international law.
“The UK must ban settlement trade, impose meaningful sanctions and stop arming a state committing ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and daily atrocities. The world is watching, and history will not be kind to those who stood by."
Israel is widely accused of committing genocide in Palestine, including by Amnesty and the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS).
The country's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
