Israeli policies driving demographic shift in Palestinian territories: UN
Rights chief flags displacement, illegal Israeli settlement expansion, and wartime destruction as signs of a long-term shift in control of land and people.
The United Nations’ top human rights official has accused Israel of pursuing policies that could permanently alter the population makeup of the occupied Palestinian territories, warning the trend raises concerns about ethnic cleansing.
Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, High Commissioner Volker Turk said on Thursday Israeli actions in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza appear aimed at creating “permanent demographic change.”
Turk highlighted a year-long Israeli military raids in the northern occupied West Bank that have displaced roughly 32,000 Palestinians.
He also pointed to the growing displacement of Bedouin herding communities amid rising violence by illegal Israeli settlers in areas near Ramallah and in the Jordan Valley.
Continued illegal settlement expansion
More than three million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank alongside over half a million illegal Israeli settlers in communities widely viewed as illegal under international law.
Settlement expansion has accelerated under Israel’s current government, with watchdog group Peace Now reporting a record number of new settlement approvals in 2025.
Recent government-backed measures include moves to register occupied West Bank land as state property and allow direct land purchases by Israelis — steps that have drawn international criticism and condemnation from groups including Hamas.
In Gaza, where most of the enclave’s 2.2 million residents have been displaced at least once since the war began in October 2023, the UN rights office said recent patterns of attacks, widespread destruction and limits on aid deliveries appear aimed at reshaping the territory’s population distribution.
Forced emigration of Palestinians
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has publicly called for encouraging Palestinian emigration from Gaza and the occupied West Bank, describing the move as part of a long-term strategy for Israeli sovereignty over the territory.
Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967, has not accepted accusations that its policies amount to demographic engineering, maintaining that its actions are driven by security considerations.