U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said Thursday that Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip appear aimed at creating a “permanent demographic change,” warning in a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council that the situation raises concerns of ethnic cleansing.
"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 U.N.'s Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Turk pointed in particular to an ongoing, year-long Israeli military operation in the West Bank's north that has caused the displacement of 32,000 Palestinians.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, entire Bedouin herder communities have been displaced by increasing harassment and violence from Israeli settlers, including near Mikhmas to the east of Ramallah, and Ras Ein al-Auja, in the Jordan Valley, since the start of the year.
In addition to roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.
