‘Tragedy Foretold & Stain On Our Collective Humanity’: Special Rapporteur Warns Of Mass Ethnic Cleansing In West Bank

GENEVA (18 March 2025) – Palestinians face serious risk of mass ethnic cleansing as Israel advances its long-held plan to take Palestinian lands and evacuate them of Palestinians under the fog of war, a UN expert warned today.

While ethnic cleansing is not a standalone crime, it involves actions that constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and even genocide, said Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.

In October 2023, the Special Rapporteur warned that Israel would use the “war against Hamas” to acquire Palestinian land and further displace Palestinians. “What Israel is doing in occupied Palestine today has strong echoes of 1947-1949 Nakba and the 1967 Naksa,” Albanese said.

“The world meanwhile is pretending not to see history repeating itself,” she said.

In 16 months, Israeli forces have killed 48,570 Palestinians in Gaza and displaced 1.9 million. Israel’s relentless bombardment has devastated the strip, making return impossible. Even Western governments now propose forcibly relocating survivors. "This idea is unlawful and adds insult to injury," Albanese said.

Beyond Gaza, Israeli forces and settler militias have escalated violence in the West Bank. Since January 2025, more than 40,000 refugees from Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams were forcibly displaced from their homes, and nearly 70 killed.

Albanese said the West Bank faces its worst military assault since the second intifada, marked by air strikes, armoured bulldozers and controlled demolitions to conduct raids, demolish homes and destroy villages and critical infrastructure including farmland.

"We are witnessing new ‘Trails of Tears’ in the West Bank, mirroring Gaza’s fate. In 2025, such injustice is not only unacceptable but a stain on our collective conscience," the Special Rapporteur said.

As of 23 February, the Israeli Minister of Defence authorised military reinforcements in the West Bank, preventing 40,000 displaced Palestinians from returning to northern areas. Settler-led attacks backed by the Israeli army between January 2023 and January 2025 have displaced over 2,275 Palestinians, including 1,117 children.

History demonstrates that Israel’s strategy for a “Greater Israel” free of Palestinian presence relies on forcibly displacing and repressing Palestinians, the Special Rapporteur recalled. Albanese noted that destroying Palestinian lives, homes, and infrastructure while denying their return advances this goal. .

“Israel’s conduct aiming to ethnically cleanse the land between the river to the sea, amounts to a genocidal campaign to erase Palestinians as a people.

“The international community must uphold its obligation to protect Palestinians from annihilation. The only way is to enforce the ICJ Advisory Opinion that has recognised the unlawfulness of, and ordered an unconditional end to, Israel’s ongoing presence in the occupied Palestinian territory and imposed binding provisional measures on Israel to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza,” the Special Rapporteur said.

“Israel’s Prime Minister and former Minister of Defence are wanted by the International Criminal Court, and States must support the ICC arrest warrants,” Albanese said, calling also for targeted sanctions, halting all arms transfers, banning trade with Israel that may harm Palestinians, and prosecuting those responsible for crimes in the occupied territories.

“Palestine is a wound. What is happening to the Palestinians is a tragedy foretold, and a stain on Israel’s history for which we bear collective responsibility. It is never too late for the world to stand up and do the right thing.”

Note:

Francesca Albanese is the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent fromany government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.

Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/

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