US EditionUN Says Israel’s Actions Aim to Create Permanent Demographic Change in West Bank and Gaza
Israel approved 54 new settlements in 2025 while a military operation displaced 32,000 Palestinians, aiming for long-term demographic shifts, UN rights chief Volker Turk said.
- On Thursday, UN rights chief Volker Turk said at the UN Human Rights Council that Israel's actions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip seem aimed at creating 'permanent demographic change', raising concerns about possible ethnic cleansing.
- This month Israel approved initiatives to register West Bank land as 'state property' and allow purchases, while Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli far-right Finance Minister, vowed to encourage 'emigration' and nullify the Oslo Accords.
- A year-long operation in the West Bank's north displaced 32,000 Palestinians while Bedouin herder communities were driven out near Mikhmas and Ras Ein al-Auja.
- Several countries and Hamas condemned Israel's recent moves in the West Bank, while the UN human rights office reported intensified attacks and denied humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip last week.
- Long ago Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and Fathi Nimer, researcher at al-Shabaka, said 'They want maximum land and minimum Arabs', reflecting settlement tactics.
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20 Articles
Israel seeks ’permanent demographic change’ to West Bank, Gaza
Israel's actions in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip seem aimed at creating "permanent demographic change", UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday. "Taken together, Israel's actions appear aimed at making a permanent demographic change in Gaza and the West Bank, raising concerns about ethnic cleansing", Turk said in a speech before the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva. Turk pointed in particular to an ongoing, year-long Israeli…
Geneva. Israel’s military offensives and actions in the reoccupied West Bank and Gaza provoke a “permanent demographic change” and could trigger ethnic cleansing in those territories, said yesterday the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk. The situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, he said, constitutes a “man-made disaster”.
“Israel continues to destroy civilian infrastructure and forcibly transfer Palestinians within the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” said High Commissioner Volker Türk.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights referred to actions taken as a whole that raise "anxieties about ethnic cleansing".
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