Dear High Representative,
Dear Ministers,
Ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council on 15 June, we are writing to share with you our new report, “Erasing anything Palestinian: Israel’s ethnic cleansing of West Bank Bedouin and herding communities,” which provides conclusive evidence that Israel has been committing the war crime of unlawful transfer and the crime against humanity of forcible transfer or deportation, in pursuit of a policy to ethnically cleanse Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank. Israel is committing these crimes against the backdrop of its ongoing genocide in Gaza and as part of its decades-long unlawful occupation of the OPT and its apartheid system against all Palestinians whose rights it controls. Neither the current unprecedented escalation nor the decades of atrocities by Israel could have continued had it not been for the failure of the international community to take effective measures and for the political and financial support Israel continues to receive.
Our report leaves no room for doubt. Setter violence is state policy, and Israeli authorities use it as a deliberate tactic to dispossess Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities.
Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the West Bank are being uprooted at a harrowing scale and speed. By the end of April 2026, at least 5,910 people primarily from Bedouin and herding communities in Area C have been forcibly transferred amid unprecedented surge in intensity and frequency of state-backed settler attacks, according to UN data. Those who remain or try to return to their homes and villages, like the residents of Zanuta in the South Hebron Hills or Ein Samia in the Central Jordan Valley, continue to be prevented through violent attacks and intimidation by settlers, who operate in total impunity and with the support of Israeli forces.
Israel’s unlawful land confiscation, home demolitions, arbitrary movement restrictions, alongside the rapid growth of illegal settlements and outposts on Palestinians’ ancestral lands are devastating Palestinian lives and their protected rights under international law.
The report exposes how the current Israeli government has brazenly adopted and steadily implemented the settler movement’s vision to annex under Israeli law parts of the unlawfully occupied West Bank, on top of the already illegally-annexed occupied East Jerusalem, including through settlement expansion, accelerating land grabs and reconfiguring governance of the occupied territory. Since its formation in December 2022, the Israeli government has exponentially increased financial and logistical support to settlements, and increased arms licenses to settlers thus enabling a state-sanctioned settler violence campaign. This has led to the demographic reengineering of the occupied West Bank and the destruction of an entire social fabric for Palestinian communities.
The EU and its member states have a crucial role to play in urgently acting to protect Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the West Bank, prevent the uprooting of further communities and enable the return of the Palestinians who have already been forcibly transferred.
It is paramount that the EU addresses the root causes of Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank by pressuring Israel to dismantle its system of apartheid and end its unlawful occupation, while ensuring accountability for all crimes under international law.
In its June 2025 assessment of Israel’s compliance with Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the European Commission had documented numerous violations of international law stemming from Israel’s settlement policy.
As a matter of urgency, we call on the EU and its member states to take immediate steps, including at the upcoming Foreign Affairs Council on 15 June, to:
- Signal that Israel’s impunity for its international crimes against Palestinians must end, by proactively pursuing accountability for the war crime of unlawful transfer, the crimes against humanity of forcible transfer and apartheid, and the crime of genocide, through domestic and international justice mechanisms.
- Review all agreements, research exchanges and trade relations with Israel, and suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement based on Israel’s breach of its human rights clause (Article 2), in order to ensure that it does not directly or indirectly contribute to Israel’s unlawful occupation and crimes under international law.
- Use the EU’s economic leverage as Israel’s largest trading partner to pressure it to dismantle its apartheid regime and end its unlawful occupation, policy of ethnic cleansing and ongoing violations in the OPT.
- Take steps to ban trade, investment relations, or any form of aid, cooperation or financial assistance that contribute to, or are directly linked to, Israel’s unlawful occupation, system of apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. These include taking steps to prevent trade, funding and investment that may aid or assist in the maintenance of, or contribute to, or be directly linked to, Israel’s system of apartheid, unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territory or ethnic cleansing, to align the EU’s trade relations with Israel with international law, including through:
- An EU-wide total ban on all imports and exports of goods and services from and to Israel’s illegal settlements in the OPT as well as investments therein, as a step towards aligning the EU’s trade relations with Israel with international law under the EU’s Common Commercial Policy;
- Banning trade and cooperation with entities implicated in the establishment and maintenance of illegal settlements, outposts and their associated regime, as well as Israel’s apartheid system and related violations such as forcible transfer perpetrated with the intention to maintain it. This encompasses state institutions, including government ministries, among them the ministries of agriculture, settlement and national missions, defence, transport and finance;
- Banning the direct or indirect provision of funds or economic resources to all Israeli organizations that are integral to the settlement enterprise and apartheid system. This includes organizations that build, develop and fund – including through fundraising campaigns – Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem. It also covers organizations that lead activities to dispossess Palestinians by exploiting inherently discriminatory laws against Palestinians to initiate eviction proceedings or push for the enforcement of demolition orders, or those that recruit volunteers to help build and expand unauthorized outposts or engage in acts aimed at ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Area C or other parts of the OPT.
- Impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes against Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel Katz and Orit Strock as Israeli officials most directly implicated in Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign in the occupied West Bank and forcible transfer, and maintaining the unlawful occupation and system and crime of apartheid Israel imposes on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
- End the exemptions for visa-free travel to the EU for Israeli settlers: by granting visa-free access to the EU to Israeli citizens living in illegal settlements and outposts in the OPT, but requiring visas for Palestinians living in the OPT, the EU and its member states are contributing to Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians. Providing visa-free access to settlers also violates the obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of Israel in the OPT, as per the ICJ Advisory Opinion of July 2024, and the EU’s own differentiation policy.
- Ban the direct and indirect supply, sale or transfer to Israel of all arms, military material, and security equipment, including related technologies, parts and components, technical assistance, training, financial or other assistance. This includes prohibiting the transit and transshipment of these goods through their jurisdictions (ports, airports, airspace or territory) bound for Israel.
- Actively intervene through the EU and its member states’ diplomatic channels and missions to monitor and support Palestinian communities to prevent their uprooting and facilitate the return of those forcibly transferred.
Lack of meaningful action to stop Israel’s continuous crimes sends a dangerous message that Palestinian lives are not valued and that unlawful occupation, apartheid, including ethnic cleansing, and genocide are negotiable, and that international legal protection is not universal.
It is crucial that the EU demonstrates legal and moral leadership and marks a clear shift from the prolonged impunity that Israel has been granted despite its flouting of international law by taking action to immediately stop Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign.
We stand ready to meet you to discuss our urgent concerns detailed above or provide further information.
Sincerely,
Eve Geddie
Director
Amnesty International – European Institutions Office