'What do you call this but ethnic cleansing?' NYT columnist on West Bank demolition

'What do you call this but ethnic cleansing?' NYT columnist on West Bank demolition Pulitzer-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof said Israeli settlers had blocked him during his visit this spring to a few Palestinian villages, one of which has been cleansed of its residents since. Kristof wrote on X: “I visited these Palestinian villages in the spring. Families were still struggling to farm the land of their ancestors despite repeated violent attacks by settlers.” “The settlers also blocked me but left when I tried to interview them. What do you call this but ethnic cleansing?” Kristof’s remarks came in reaction to a video posted by Yehuda Shaul, co-director of the Ofek Center and co-founder of Breaking the Silence, which shows the demolition of a Palestinian village of Khirbat al-Tabban in Masafer Yatta by Israeli authorities. Shaul warned that without serious international pushback, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich's political agenda would lead to the destruction of more Palestinian communities in the area. Masafer Yatta, a cluster of Palestinian hamlets in the South Hebron Hills, has faced a longstanding Israeli military campaign to displace residents under the pretext of using the land as a firing zone. I visited these Palestinian villages in the spring. Families were still struggling to farm the land of their ancestors despite repeated violent attacks by settlers. The settlers also blocked me but left when I tried to interview them. What do you call this but ethnic cleansing? https://t.co/tAYYbkWGkO — Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) September 4, 2026