Forced displacement of Bedouins by Israel amounts to 'ethnic cleansing': Palestine

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine has said that the forced displacement of the Bedouin communities by the Israeli regime throughout the occupied Palestinian territory amounts to ethnic cleansing. 

“The Ministry considers this crime to be a crime of ethnic cleansing, and falls within the framework of the ongoing gradual annexation of the occupied West Bank and emptying it of its inhabitants and original owners,” the ministry said in a statement released on Sunday. 

The ministry also voiced concern about the massive displacement of the Bedouin communities especially in Masafer Yatta and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank.

The latest displacement of the last Palestinian Bedouin family came in Umm al-Jimal in the northern Jordan Valley, bringing the number of forcibly displaced Bedouin communities to 40, the ministry said. 

The ministry said that the attacks by the Israeli settlers against the communities come with the support and protection of the Israeli military and the direct supervision of the regime's hawkish ministers.

The ministry stressed that the deterrent international sanctions must include “not only the extremist settlers and their armed militias but also the ministers and officials in the Israeli government who provide protection, support, funding and backing, such as Bezalel Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.”

The US and some other Western states had already imposed sanctions against some extremist settlers. The US, British and French governments recently placed sanctions on more than 30 Israeli settlers for acts of violence and incitement against Palestinians.

 Observers say the measures are not enough to contain escalating violence by the settlers across the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel razes Palestinian Bedouin village for ‘196th time’

Every year, hundreds of Bedouin homes are razed to the ground as part of Israel

There had been 1,250 assaults by Israeli settlers against the Palestinians in the West Bank since Israel launched its campaign of death and destruction in the besieged Gaza Strip on October 7. 

The UN's special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories recently called upon the international community to put an end to Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinian populations.

“I IMPLORE the diplomatic community, the UN and international organizations in the West Bank to intervene, including with their physical presence on the ground, to stop the ongoing and violent forced displacement of Palestinian communities,” Francesca Albanese wrote in a post published on her X account on Saturday.

In her post,  Albanese cited  Israeli activists from Farsyia, a Bedouin village in the northern Jordan Valley, as saying that the Israeli settlers pass through Palestinians’ houses, threatening them and scaring the children so that the whole community decided to evacuate.

The comments came after Palestinian shepherds from the West Bank community of Umm Jamal finally surrendered and fled in fear. 

UN special rapporteur calls for end to forced displacement of Palestinian populations

The UN special rapporteur calls upon the international community to stop Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinian communities.

Israeli forces and settlers have increased their violent attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since early last October.

Late last month, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said Israel’s forced displacement orders in the southern parts of the Gaza Strip are part of the regime’s genocidal war that led Palestinians to “actual death.”

The Geneva-based right group has previously said that the regime’s mass forced displacement campaign “has so far affected about 2,000,000 people in the Gaza Strip, most of them forcibly displaced multiple times.”

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