“After three weeks of harassment, intimidation and physical attacks, the families living in Al-Baqa’a had no choice but to leave,” Caroline Ort, director of the NRC for Palestine said in a statement, also stating that extremists have the tacit, and sometimes explicit, support of Israeli government officials.

“They intimidate and attack Palestinian communities with the express aim of displacing them, that is a violation of international law and must stop,” she stressed.

Ort also accused the Israeli authorities of creating an increasingly coercive environment in order to put pressure on Al-Baqa’a residents.

The expansion of the colonies, as well as planning and zoning restrictions has limited the freedom of movement of these people, including access to grazing lands, she said. “We call on the international community to demand responsibility for the violence of the settlers,” Ort urged. “Too often we only hear condemnations and condolences, but it is not enough, we need concrete facts to end this impunity.”

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