:en:Ethnic cleansing

{{short description|Systematic removal of a certain ethnic or religious group}}

File:Expulsion judios-en.svg in Europe from 1100 to 1600]]

Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it also includes indirect methods aimed at forced migration by coercing the victim group to flee and preventing its return, such as murder, rape, and property destruction.{{cite journal |last1=Walling |first1=Carrie Booth |title=The history and politics of ethnic cleansing |journal=The International Journal of Human Rights |date=2000 |volume=4 |issue=3–4 |pages=47–66 |doi=10.1080/13642980008406892 |s2cid=144001685 |quote=Most frequently, however, the aim of ethnic cleansing is to expel the despised ethnic group through either indirect coercion or direct force, and to ensure that return is impossible. Terror is the fundamental method used to achieve this end.
Methods of indirect coercion can include: introducing repressive laws and discriminatory measures designed to make minority life difficult; the deliberate failure to prevent mob violence against ethnic minorities; using surrogates to inflict violence; the destruction of the physical infrastructure upon which minority life depends; the imprisonment of male members of the ethnic group; threats to rape female members, and threats to kill. If ineffective, these indirect methods are often escalated to coerced emigration, where the removal of the ethnic group from the territory is pressured by physical force. This typically includes physical harassment and the expropriation of property. Deportation is an escalated form of direct coercion in that the forcible removal of 'undesirables' from the state's territory is organised, directed and carried out by state agents. The most serious of the direct methods, excluding genocide, is murderous cleansing, which entails the brutal and often public murder of some few in order to compel flight of the remaining group members.13 Unlike during genocide, when murder is intended to be total and an end in itself, murderous cleansing is used as a tool towards the larger aim of expelling survivors from the territory. The process can be made complete by revoking the citizenship of those who emigrate or flee.}}{{cite journal |last1=Schabas |first1=William A. |title='Ethnic Cleansing' and Genocide: Similarities and Distinctions |journal=European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online |date=2003 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=109–128 |doi=10.1163/221161104X00075 |quote=The Commission considered techniques of ethnic cleansing to include murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, extrajudicial executions, sexual assault, confinement of civilian populations in ghetto areas, forcible removal, displacement and deportation of civilian populations, deliberate military attacks or threats of attacks on civilians and civilian areas, and wanton destruction of property.|doi-access=free }}The danger of overstretching the term can be avoided...The goal of ethnic cleansing is to permanently remove a group from the area it inhabits...There is a popular dimension to ethnic cleansing because there are people needed to threaten with violence, to evict homes, organize mass transports, and to prevent the return of the unwanted...The main goal of ethnic cleansing was the removal of a group from a certain territory The Oxford Handbook of Postwar European History. (2012). United Kingdom: OUP Oxford.{{cite book |last1=Joireman |first1=Sandra Fullerton |title=Peace, preference, and property : return migration after violent conflict |publisher=University of Michigan |page=49 |quote=Violent conflict changes communities. "Returnees painfully discover that in their period of absence the homeland communities and their identities have undergone transformation, and these ruptures and changes have serious implications for their ability to reclaim a sense of home upon homecoming." The first issue in terms of returning home is usually the restoration of property, specifically the return or rebuilding of homes. People want their property restored, often before they return. But home means more than property, it also refers to the nature of the community. Anthropological literature emphasizes that time and the experience of violence changes people's sense of home and desire to return, and the nature of their communities of origin. To sum up, previous research has identified factors that influence decisions to return: time, trauma, family characteristics and economic opportunities. |author-link=Sandra Joireman}} Both the definition and charge of ethnic cleansing is often disputed, with some researchers including and others excluding coercive assimilation or mass killings as a means of depopulating an area of a particular group.{{sfn|Bulutgil|2018|p=1136}}{{cite journal |last1=Kirby-McLemore |first1=Jennifer |title=Settling the Genocide v. Ethnic Cleansing Debate: Ending Misuse of the Euphemism Ethnic Cleansing |journal=Denver Journal of International Law and Policy |date=2021–2022 |volume=50 |page=115 |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/denilp50&div=11&id=&page=}}

Although scholars do not agree on which events constitute ethnic cleansing,{{cite journal |last1=Garrity |first1=Meghan M |title='Ethnic Cleansing': An Analysis of Conceptual and Empirical Ambiguity |journal=Political Science Quarterly |date=27 September 2023 |volume=138 |issue=4 |pages=469–489 |doi=10.1093/psquar/qqad082}} many instances have occurred throughout history. The term was first used to describe Albanian nationalist treatment of the Kosovo Serbs in the 1980s,{{Cite web |title=Who first coined the euphemism "ethnic cleansing" for racial murder and persecution? Surely it must have been a dictator? {{!}} Notes and Queries {{!}} guardian.co.uk |url=https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-2894,00.html |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=www.theguardian.com}}{{Cite news |last=Howe |first=Marvine |date=12 July 1982 |title=Exodus of Serbians stirs province in Yugoslavia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/12/world/exodus-of-serbians-stirs-province-in-yugoslavia.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180317141650/https://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/12/world/exodus-of-serbians-stirs-province-in-yugoslavia.html |archive-date=17 March 2018 |access-date= |work=The New York Times |pages=8}} and entered widespread use during the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s. Since then, the term has gained widespread acceptance due to journalism.{{sfn|Thum|2010|p=75|ps=: way. Despite its euphemistic character and its origin in the language of the perpetrators, 'ethnic cleansing' is now the widely accepted scholarly term used to describe the systematic and violent removal of undesired ethnic groups from a given territory.}} Although research originally focused on deep-rooted animosities as an explanation for ethnic cleansing events, more recent studies depict ethnic cleansing as "a natural extension of the homogenizing tendencies of nation states" or emphasize security concerns and the effects of democratization, portraying ethnic tensions as a contributing factor. Research has also focused on the role of war as a causative or potentiating factor in ethnic cleansing. However, states in a similar strategic situation can have widely varying policies towards minority ethnic groups perceived as a security threat.{{cite journal |last1=Bulutgil |first1=H. Zeynep |title=The state of the field and debates on ethnic cleansing |journal=Nationalities Papers |date=2018 |volume=46 |issue=6 |pages=1136–1145 |doi=10.1080/00905992.2018.1457018|s2cid=158519257 }}

Ethnic cleansing has no legal definition under international criminal law, but the methods by which it is carried out are considered crimes against humanity and may also fall under the Genocide Convention.{{cite web |publisher=United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect |title=Ethnic cleansing|url=https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/ethnic-cleansing.shtml |website=United Nations |access-date=20 December 2020}}{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Adam |title=Crimes Against Humanity: A Beginner's Guide |date=2012 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-78074-146-8 |language=en |chapter='Ethnic cleansing' and genocide}}{{cite journal |last1=Schabas |first1=William A. |title='Ethnic Cleansing' and Genocide: Similarities and Distinctions |journal=European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online |date=2003 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=109–128 |doi=10.1163/221161104X00075 |quote='Ethnic cleansing' is probably better described as a popular or journalistic expression, with no recognized legal meaning in a technical sense... 'ethnic cleansing' is equivalent to deportation,' a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions as well as a crime against humanity, and therefore a crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal. |doi-access=free }}

Etymology

File:Refugees at the Taurus Pass.jpg. The Young Turk triumvirate aimed to reduce the number of Armenians to below 5–10% of the population in any part of the Ottoman empire, which resulted in the elimination of a million Armenians.{{cite book |last1=Akçam |first1=Taner |author1-link=Taner Akcam |title=The Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire |date=2011 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15333-9 |language=en |chapter=Demographic Policy and the Annihilation of the Armenians|quote=The thesis being proposed here is that the Armenian Genocide was not implemented solely as demographic engineering, but also as destruction and annihilation, and that the 5 to 10 percent principle was decisive in achieving this goal. Care was taken so that the number of Armenians deported to Syria, and those who remained behind, would not exceed 5 to 10 percent of the population of the places in which they were found. Such a result could be achieved only through annihilation... According to official Ottoman statistics, it was necessary to reduce the prewar population of 1.3 million Armenians to approximately 200,000.}}]]

File:Italians leave Pola.jpg leave Pola in 1947 during the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus, which followed the foibe massacres]]

An antecedent to the term is the Greek word {{lang|grc-Latn|andrapodismos}} ({{lang|grc|ἀνδραποδισμός}}; lit. "enslavement"), which was used in ancient texts. e.g., to describe atrocities that accompanied Alexander the Great's conquest of Thebes in 335 BCE.{{cite book|year=2012|title=The Kosovo Tragedy: The Human Rights Dimensions|editor-last=Booth|editor-first=Ken |first=Carrie |last=Booth Walling |contribution=The History and Politics of Ethnic Cleansing|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-1-13633-476-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e4MsBgAAQBAJ|page=48}} The expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain between 1609 and 1614 is considered by some authors to be one of the first episodes of state-sponsored ethnic cleansing in the modern western world.{{cite book |last1=Saldanha |first1=Arun |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4bRvAAAAQBAJ&q=ethnic+cleansing&pg=PA51 |title=Deleuze and Race |date=2012 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-6961-5 |pages=51, 70 |language=en}} Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term "genocide", considered the displacement of Native Americans by American settlers as a historical example of genocide.{{cite journal |last1=McDonnell |first1=M. A. |last2=Moses |first2=A. D. |author2-link=A. Dirk Moses |date=2005 |title=Raphael Lemkin as historian of genocide in the Americas |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume=7 |pages=501–529 |doi=10.1080/14623520500349951 |s2cid=72663247 |number=4}} Others, like historian Gary Anderson, contend that genocide does not accurately characterize any aspect of American history, suggesting instead that ethnic cleansing is a more appropriate term.{{Cite journal |last=Sousa |first=Ashley |date=2016 |title=Ethnic Cleansing and the Indian: The Crime That Should Haunt America by Gary Clayton Anderson |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/soh.2016.0023 |journal=Journal of Southern History |volume=82 |issue=1 |pages=135–136 |doi=10.1353/soh.2016.0023 |s2cid=159731284 |issn=2325-6893}} The Circassian genocide, also known as "Tsitsekun", is often regarded by various historians as the first large-scale ethnic cleansing campaign launched by a state during the 19th century industrial era.{{Cite book |last=Richmond |first=Walter |title=The Circassian Genocide |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8135-6068-7 |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA |pages=66|chapter=3: From War to Genocide}}{{cite book |last=Levene |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Levene |isbn= 1-84511-057-9 | title=Genocide in the Age of the Nation-State Volume II: The Rise of the West and the Coming of Genocide |year=2005|pages=298–302|chapter=6: Declining Powers |publisher=175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010}} Imperial Russian general Nikolay Yevdakimov, who supervised the operations of Circassian genocide during 1860s, dehumanised Muslim Circassians as "a pestilence" to be expelled from their native lands. Russian objective was the annexation of land; and the Russian military operations that forcibly deported Circassians were designated by Yevdakimov as “ochishchenie” (cleansing).

In the early 1900s, regional variants of the term could be found among the Czechs ({{lang|cs|očista}}), the Poles ({{lang|pl|czystki etniczne}}), the French ({{lang|fr|épuration}}) and the Germans ({{lang|de|Säuberung}}).{{cite book |first=Philipp |last=Ther |editor1-first=Rainer |editor1-last=Munz |editor2-first=Rainer |editor2-last=Ohliger |year=2004 |title=Diasporas and Ethnic Migrants: Germany, Israel and Russia in Comparative Perspective |chapter=The Spell of the Homogeneous Nation State: Structural Factors and Agents of Ethnic Cleansing |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-1-13575-938-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kEOQAgAAQBAJ |access-date=August 31, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126110924/https://books.google.com/books?id=kEOQAgAAQBAJ |archive-date=January 26, 2020 |url-status=live }}{{page needed|date=September 2016}} A 1913 Carnegie Endowment report condemning the actions of all participants in the Balkan Wars contained various new terms to describe brutalities committed toward ethnic groups.{{cite journal|url=https://balkanologie.revues.org/2365|title=The Two Carnegie Reports: From the Balkan Expedition of 1913 to the Albanian Trip of 1921|first=Nadine|last=Akhund|date=December 31, 2012|journal=Balkanologie. Revue d'études pluridisciplinaires|volume=XIVb|issue=1–2|doi=10.4000/balkanologie.2365|via=balkanologie.revues.org|access-date=April 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404043111/https://balkanologie.revues.org/2365|archive-date=April 4, 2017|url-status=live|doi-access=free}}

File:Vertreibung.jpg following the end of World War II]]

During the Holocaust in World War II, Nazi Germany pursued a policy of ensuring that Europe was "cleaned of Jews" ({{lang|de|judenrein}}).{{cite book|first=Mary|last=Fulbrooke|year=2004|title=A Concise History of Germany|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-52154-071-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zFBu8ujJWzkC|page=197|access-date=August 31, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126110933/https://books.google.com/books?id=zFBu8ujJWzkC|archive-date=January 26, 2020|url-status=live}} The Nazi {{lang|de|Generalplan Ost}} called for the genocide and ethnic cleansing of most Slavic people in central and eastern Europe for the purpose of providing more living space for the Germans.{{cite journal |last=Eichholtz |first=Dietrich |title='Generalplan Ost' zur Versklavung osteuropäischer Völker |trans-title='General Plan East' for the enslavement of Eastern European peoples |journal=Utopie Kreativ |volume=167 |date=September 2004 |via=Rosa Luxemburg Foundation |pages=800–808 |language=de |url=https://www.rosalux.de/publikation/id/3303/utopie-kreativ-167/}} During the Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia, the euphemism {{lang|hr|čišćenje terena}} ("cleansing the terrain") was used by the Croatian Ustaše to describe military actions in which non-Croats were purposely systematically killed or otherwise uprooted from their homes.{{cite book|last1=Toal|first1=Gerard|last2=Dahlman|first2=Carl T.|title=Bosnia Remade: Ethnic Cleansing and Its Reversal|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|year=2011|isbn=978-0-19-973036-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1TrvGxJeasC|page=3|access-date=March 1, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140706230527/http://books.google.com/books?id=Q1TrvGxJeasC|archive-date=July 6, 2014|url-status=live}}{{cite book|first=Richard |last=West|year=1994|title=Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia|publisher=Carroll & Graf|location=New York|isbn=978-0-7867-0332-6|page=93}} The term was also used in the December 20, 1941 directive of Serbian Chetniks in reference to the genocidal massacres they committed against Bosniaks and Croats between 1941 and 1945.{{cite book|first=Edina|last=Becirevic|year=2014|title=Genocide on the River Drina|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, Connecticut|isbn=978-0-3001-9258-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N0X4AwAAQBAJ|pages=22–23|access-date=August 31, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126110928/https://books.google.com/books?id=N0X4AwAAQBAJ|archive-date=January 26, 2020|url-status=live}} The Russian phrase {{lang|ru|очистка границ}} ({{lang|ru-Latn|ochistka granits}}; lit. "cleansing of borders") was used in Soviet documents of the early 1930s to refer to the forced resettlement of Polish people from the {{convert|22|km|adj=on}} border zone in the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs.{{Citation needed|reason=Not in the source provided for the next sentence|date=August 2021}} This process of the population transfer in the Soviet Union was repeated on an even larger scale in 1939–1941, involving many other groups suspected of disloyalty.

File:Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - Arab People fleeing.jpg, at least 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes or forced to flee from what is now Israel.{{cite news |title=The Nakba did not start or end in 1948 |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948 |work=Al Jazeera |date=23 May 2017}}]]

In its complete form, the term appeared for the first time in the Romanian language ({{lang|ro|purificare etnică}}) in an address by Vice Prime Minister Mihai Antonescu to cabinet members in July 1941. After the beginning of the invasion by the Soviet Union,{{clarify|date=October 2017}} he concluded: "I do not know when the Romanians will have such chance for ethnic cleansing."{{Cite book|title=Ethnopolitical Temptations Reach Southeastern Europe: Wartime Policy Papers of Vasa Čubrilović and Sabin Manuilă|last=Petrovic|first=Vladimir|publisher=CEU Press|year=2017}} In the 1980s, the Soviets used the term "etnicheskoye chishcheniye" which literally translates to "ethnic cleansing" to describe Azerbaijani efforts to drive Armenians away from Nagorno-Karabakh.Allen, Tim, and Jean Seaton, eds. The media of conflict: War reporting and representations of ethnic violence. Zed Books, 1999. p. 152{{Cite journal |last=Feierstein |first=Daniel |date=2023-04-04 |title=The Meaning of Concepts: Some Reflections on the Difficulties in Analysing State Crimes |url=https://ojs.ub.rub.de/index.php/HARM/article/view/10453 |journal=HARM – Journal of Hostility, Aggression, Repression and Malice |volume=1 |doi=10.46586/harm.2023.10453 |issn=2940-3073 |quote=The concept seems to have been borrowed from the Slavic expression etnicheskoye chishcheniye, first used by Soviet authorities in the 1980s to describe Azeri attempts to expel Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh area, and then immediately reappropriated by Serb nationalists to describe their policies in the central region of Yugoslavia.}}Cox, Caroline. [https://wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/login?auth=production&url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hft&AN=509635905&site=eds-live&scope=site "Nagorno Karabakh: Forgotten People in a Forgotten War."]{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Contemporary Review 270 (1997): 8–13: "These operations were part of a policy designated `Operation Ring, comprising the proposed ethnic cleansing (a word used in relation to Azerbaijan's policy before it became familiar to the world in the context of the former Yugoslavia) of all Armenians from their ancient homeland of Karabakh." It was widely popularized by the Western media during the Bosnian War (1992–1995).

In 1992, the German equivalent of ethnic cleansing ({{langx|de|ethnische Säuberung}}, {{IPA|de|ˈʔɛtnɪʃə ˈzɔɪ̯bəʁʊŋ|pron|De-ethnische Säuberung.ogg}}) was named German Un-word of the Year by the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache due to its euphemistic, inappropriate nature.{{cite news |first=Christoph |last=Gunkel |date=October 31, 2010 |url=http://einestages.spiegel.de/external/ShowTopicAlbumBackground/a23795/l18/l0/F.html#featuredEntry |work=Spiegel Online |title=Ein Jahr, ein (Un-)Wort! |language=de |trans-title=One year, one (un)word! |access-date=February 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512233554/http://einestages.spiegel.de/external/ShowTopicAlbumBackground/a23795/l18/l0/F.html#featuredEntry |archive-date=May 12, 2013 |url-status=live }}

Definitions

The Final Report of the Commission of Experts established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 defined ethnic cleansing as:

{{blockquote|a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas", [noting that in the former Yugoslavia] " 'ethnic cleansing' has been carried out by means of murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, extra-judicial executions, rape and sexual assaults, confinement of civilian population in ghetto areas, forcible removal, displacement and deportation of civilian population, deliberate military attacks or threats of attacks on civilians and civilian areas, and wanton destruction of property. Those practices constitute crimes against humanity and can be assimilated to specific war crimes. Furthermore, such acts could also fall within the meaning of the Genocide Convention.{{cite web |date=May 27, 1994 |title=Final Report of the Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 780 (1992) |url=https://www.refworld.org/legal/resolution/unsc/1994/en/113325 |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date= |publisher=United Nations Security Council |page=33 |format=PDF}} Paragraph 129{{cite web |title=Final Report of the Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 780 (1992) |date=May 27, 1994 |url=https://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/1994/674 |publisher=United Nations Security Council |format=PDF |page=33 |quote=Upon examination of reported information, specific studies and investigations, the Commission confirms its earlier view that 'ethnic cleansing' is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas. To a large extent, it is carried out in the name of misguided nationalism, historic grievances and a powerful driving sense of revenge. This purpose appears to be the occupation of territory to the exclusion of the purged group or groups. This policy and the practices of warring factions are described separately in the following paragraphs. |access-date=May 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514200247/http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S%2F1994%2F674 |archive-date=May 14, 2011 |url-status=live }} Paragraph 130.}}

The official United Nations definition of ethnic cleansing is "rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove from a given area persons of another ethnic or religious group."Hayden, Robert M. (1996) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2501233 "Schindler's Fate: Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and Population Transfers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160411202522/http://www.jstor.org/stable/2501233 |date=April 11, 2016 }}. Slavic Review 55 (4), 727–48. As a category, ethnic cleansing encompasses a continuum or spectrum of policies. In the words of Andrew Bell-Fialkoff, "ethnic cleansing ... defies easy definition. At one end it is virtually indistinguishable from forced emigration and population exchange while at the other it merges with deportation and genocide. At the most general level, however, ethnic cleansing can be understood as the expulsion of a population from a given territory."Andrew Bell-Fialkoff, [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19930601faessay5199/andrew-bell-fialkoff/a-brief-history-of-ethnic-cleansing.html "A Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040203190219/http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19930601faessay5199/andrew-bell-fialkoff/a-brief-history-of-ethnic-cleansing.html |date=February 3, 2004 }}, Foreign Affairs 72 (3): 110, Summer 1993. Retrieved May 20, 2006.

Terry Martin has defined ethnic cleansing as "the forcible removal of an ethnically defined population from a given territory" and as "occupying the central part of a continuum between genocide on one end and nonviolent pressured ethnic emigration on the other end."Martin, Terry (1998). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/235168 "The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing"] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724042805/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/235168 |date=July 24, 2019}}. The Journal of Modern History 70 (4), 813–861. pg. 822

Gregory Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch, has criticised the rise of the term and its use for events that he feels should be called "genocide": because "ethnic cleansing" has no legal definition, its media use can detract attention from events that should be prosecuted as genocide.Douglas Singleterry (April 2010), "Ethnic Cleansing and Genocidal Intent: A Failure of Judicial Interpretation?", Genocide Studies and Prevention 5, 1

= As a crime under international law =

There is no international treaty that specifies a specific crime of ethnic cleansing;{{cite journal |first=Ward |last=Ferdinandusse |url=http://www.ejil.org/journal/Vol15/No5/9.pdf |title=The Interaction of National and International Approaches in the Repression of International Crimes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705180121/http://www.ejil.org/journal/Vol15/No5/9.pdf |archive-date=July 5, 2008 |journal=The European Journal of International Law |volume=15 |number=5 |year=2004 |page=1042, note 7|doi=10.1093/ejil/15.5.1041 |doi-access=free }} however, ethnic cleansing in the broad sense—the forcible deportation of a population—is defined as a crime against humanity under the statutes of both the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).[https://www.un.org/law/icc/statute/99_corr/2.htm "Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113100723/http://www.un.org/law/icc/statute/99_corr/2.htm |date=January 13, 2008 }}, Article 7; [https://www.un.org/icty/legaldoc-e/index.htm Updated Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806141633/http://www.un.org/icty/legaldoc-e/index.htm |date=August 6, 2009 }}, Article 5. The gross human rights violations integral to stricter definitions of ethnic cleansing are treated as separate crimes falling under public international law of crimes against humanity and in certain circumstances genocide.{{cite journal |first1=Daphna |last1=Shraga |first2=Ralph |last2=Zacklin |url=http://www.ejil.org/journal/Vol5/No3/art4-01.html |title=The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927233818/http://www.ejil.org/journal/Vol5/No3/art4-01.html |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |journal=The European Journal of International Law |volume=15 |number=3 |year=2004}} There are also situations, such as the expulsion of Germans after World War II, where ethnic cleansing has taken place without legal redress (see Preussische Treuhand v. Poland). Timothy v. Waters argues that similar ethnic cleansing could go unpunished in the future.[http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4600&context=expresso Timothy V. Waters, "On the Legal Construction of Ethnic Cleansing"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106100246/http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4600&context=expresso |date=November 6, 2018 }}, Paper 951, 2006, University of Mississippi School of Law. Retrieved on 2006, 12–13

= Mutual ethnic cleansing =

Mutual ethnic cleansing occurs when two groups commit ethnic cleansing against minority members of the other group within their own territories. For instance in the 1920s, Turkey expelled its Greek minority and Greece expelled its Turkish minority following the Greco-Turkish War.{{cite book |last1=Pinxten |first1=Rik |last2=Dikomitis |first2=Lisa |title=When God Comes to Town: Religious Traditions in Urban Contexts |date=1 May 2009 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-84545-920-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hMF-mjzt1fsC |access-date=31 December 2021 |language=en}} Other examples where mutual ethnic cleansing occurred include the First Nagorno-Karabakh War{{cite journal |last1=Cornell |first1=Svante E. |title=Religion as a factor in Caucasian conflicts |journal=Civil Wars |date=September 1998 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=46–64 |doi=10.1080/13698249808402381 |language=en |issn=1369-8249}} and the population transfers by the Soviets of Germans, Poles, and Ukrainians after World War II.{{cite book |last1=Snyder |first1=Timothy |title=The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999 |date=11 July 2004 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-10586-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSpEynLxJ1MC |access-date=31 December 2021 |language=en}}

Causes

File:Lipniki massacre.jpg in 1943. Most Poles of Volhynia had either been murdered or had fled the area.]]

According to Michael Mann, in The Dark Side of Democracy (2004), murderous ethnic cleansing is strongly related to the creation of democracies. He argues that murderous ethnic cleansing is due to the rise of nationalism, which associates citizenship with a specific ethnic group. Democracy, therefore, is tied to ethnic and national forms of exclusion. Nevertheless, it is not democratic states that are more prone to commit ethnic cleansing, because minorities tend to have constitutional guarantees. Neither are stable authoritarian regimes (except the nazi and communist regimes) which are likely perpetrators of murderous ethnic cleansing, but those regimes that are in process of democratization. Ethnic hostility appears where ethnicity overshadows social classes as the primordial system of social stratification. Usually, in deeply divided societies, categories such as class and ethnicity are deeply intertwined, and when an ethnic group is seen as oppressor or exploitative of the other, serious ethnic conflict can develop. Michael Mann holds that when two ethnic groups claim sovereignty over the same territory and can feel threatened, their differences can lead to severe grievances and danger of ethnic cleansing. The perpetration of murderous ethnic cleansing tends to occur in unstable geopolitical environments and in contexts of war. As ethnic cleansing requires high levels of organisation and is usually directed by states or other authoritative powers, perpetrators are usually state powers or institutions with some coherence and capacity, not failed states as it is generally perceived. The perpetrator powers tend to get support by core constituencies that favour combinations of nationalism, statism, and violence.[https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/dark-side-of-democracy/7E75A132A188A2804E91F4F209B6FE1F] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200503062111/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/dark-side-of-democracy/7E75A132A188A2804E91F4F209B6FE1F|date=May 3, 2020}}, Mann, Michael (2005), The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Ch. 1 "The Argument," pp. 1–33.

Ethnic cleansing was prevalent during the Age of Nationalism in Europe (19th and 20th centuries).{{Cite journal |last1=Müller-Crepon |first1=Carl |last2=Schvitz |first2=Guy |last3=Cederman |first3=Lars-Erik |date=2024 |title="Right-Peopling" the State: Nationalism, Historical Legacies, and Ethnic Cleansing in Europe, 1886–2020 |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00220027241227897 |journal=Journal of Conflict Resolution |language=en |doi=10.1177/00220027241227897 |issn=0022-0027|hdl=20.500.11850/657611 |hdl-access=free }}{{Cite book |last=Mylonas |first=Harris |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/politics-of-nationbuilding/C9E4A27E97D35705F0549C0FC1C03457 |title=The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-02045-0 |doi=10.1017/cbo9781139104005}} Multi-ethnic European engaged in ethnic cleansing against minorities in order to pre-empt their secession and the loss of territory. Ethnic cleansing was particularly prevalent during periods of interstate war.

Genocide

File:Smyrna-massacre greeks-killed line.jpg. From 1914 until 1923, Ottoman Greeks in Thrace and Asia Minor were subject to a campaign including massacres and deportations. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) recognizes it as genocide and refers to the campaign as the Greek Genocide.{{cite web|author=International Association of Genocide Scholars|title=Genocide Scholars Association Officially Recognizes Assyrian, Greek Genocides|date=December 16, 2007|url=http://genocidescholars.org/images/PRelease16Dec07IAGS_Officially_Recognizes_Assyrian_Greek_Genocides.pdf|access-date=15 August 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110601144026/http://genocidescholars.org/images/PRelease16Dec07IAGS_Officially_Recognizes_Assyrian_Greek_Genocides.pdf|archive-date=1 June 2011}}]]

Ethnic cleansing has been described as part of a continuum of violence whose most extreme form is genocide. Ethnic cleansing is similar to forced deportation or population transfer. While ethnic cleansing and genocide may share the same goal and methods (e.g., forced displacement), ethnic cleansing is intended to displace a persecuted population from a given territory, while genocide is intended to destroy a group.{{cite book |last=Schabas |first=William |year=2000 |title=Genocide in International Law |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pYptuRHDQPgC |pages=199–201 |isbn=9780521787901 |access-date=October 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102083003/https://books.google.com/books?id=pYptuRHDQPgC&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=January 2, 2016 |url-status=live }}Ethnic cleansing versus genocide:

{{cite book |last1=Lieberman |first1=Benjamin |editor1-last=Bloxham |editor1-first=Donald |editor2-last=Moses |editor2-first=A. Dirk |title=The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies |publisher= Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-923211-6 |chapter='Ethnic cleansing' versus genocide?|date= 2010 |quote=Explaining the relationship between ethnic cleansing and genocide has caused controversy. Ethnic cleansing shares with genocide the goal of achieving purity but the two can differ in their ultimate aims: ethnic cleansing seeks the forced removal of an undesired group or groups where genocide pursues the group's 'destruction'. Ethnic cleansing and genocide therefore fall along a spectrum of violence against groups with genocide lying on the far end of the spectrum.}}
{{cite journal |last1=Martin |first1=Terry |title=The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing |journal=The Journal of Modern History |date=1998 |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=813–861 |doi=10.1086/235168 |jstor=10.1086/235168 |s2cid=32917643 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/235168 |issn=0022-2801 |quote=When murder itself becomes the primary goal, it is typically called genocide... Ethnic cleansing is probably best understood as occupying the central part of a continuum between genocide on one end and nonviolent pressured ethnic emigration on the other end. Given this continuum, there will always be ambiguity as to when ethnic cleansing shades into genocide}}
{{cite journal |last1=Schabas |first1=William A. |title='Ethnic Cleansing' and Genocide: Similarities and Distinctions |journal=European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online |date=2003 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=109–128 |doi=10.1163/221161104X00075 |quote=The crime of genocide is aimed at the intentional destruction of an ethnic group. 'Ethnic cleansing' would seem to be targeted at something different, the expulsion of a group with a view to encouraging or at least tolerating its survival elsewhere. Yet ethnic cleansing may well have the effect of rendering the continued existence of a group impossible, thereby effecting its destruction. In other words, forcible deportation may achieve the same result as extermination camps.|doi-access=free }}
{{cite journal |last1=Walling |first1=Carrie Booth |title=The history and politics of ethnic cleansing |journal=The International Journal of Human Rights |date=2000 |volume=4 |issue=3–4 |pages=47–66 |doi=10.1080/13642980008406892 |s2cid=144001685 |quote=These methods are a part of a wider continuum ranging from genocide at one extreme to emigration under pressure at the other... It is important - politically and legally - to distinguish between genocide and ethnic cleansing. The goal of the former is extermination: the complete annihilation of an ethnic, national or racial group. It contains both a physical element (acts such as murder) and a mental element (those acts are undertaken to destroy, in whole or in part, the said group). Ethnic cleansing involves population expulsions, sometimes accompanied by murder, but its aim is consolidation of power over territory, not the destruction of a complete people.}}
{{cite book |last1=Naimark |first1=Norman M. |author1-link=Norman Naimark |title=Fires of Hatred |date=2002|url=https://www.hoover.org/research/fires-hatred |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00994-3 |pages=2–5 |quote=A new term was needed because ethnic cleansing and genocide two different activities, and the differences between them are important. As in the case of determining first-degree murder, intentionality is a critical distinction. Genocide is the intentional killing off of part or all of an ethnic, religious, or national group; the murder of a people or peoples (in German, Völkermord) is the objective. The intention of ethnic cleansing is to remove a people and often all traces of them from a concrete territory. The goal, in other words, is to get rid of the "alien" nationality, ethnic, or religious group and to seize control of the territory it had formerly inhabited. At one extreme of its spectrum, ethnic cleansing is closer to forced deportation or what has been called "population transfer"; the idea is to get people to move, and the means are meant to be legal and semi-legal. At the other extreme, however, ethnic cleansing and genocide are distinguishable only by the ultimate intent. Here, both literally and figuratively, ethnic cleansing bleeds into genocide, as mass murder is committed in order to rid the land of a people.}}
{{cite journal |last1=Hayden |first1=Robert M. |title=Schindler's Fate: Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and Population Transfers |journal=Slavic Review |date=1996 |volume=55 |issue=4 |pages=727–748 |doi=10.2307/2501233 |jstor=2501233 |s2cid=232725375 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2501233 |issn=0037-6779 |quote=Hitler wanted the Jews utterly exterminated, not simply driven from particular places. Ethnic cleansing, on the other hand, involves removals rather than extermination and is not exceptional but rather common in particular circumstances.}}

Some academics consider genocide to be a subset of "murderous ethnic cleansing".{{cite book |last=Mann |first=Michael |year=2005 |title=The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cGHGPgj1_tIC&q=The+Dark+Side+of+Democracy |page=17 |isbn=9780521538541 |access-date=October 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102083003/https://books.google.com/books?id=cGHGPgj1_tIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Dark+Side+of+Democracy |archive-date=January 2, 2016 |url-status=live }} Norman Naimark writes that these concepts are different but related, for "literally and figuratively, ethnic cleansing bleeds into genocide, as mass murder is committed in order to rid the land of a people."{{cite encyclopedia |last=Naimark |first=Norman |date=4 November 2007 |url=http://www.massviolence.org/Ethnic-Cleansing |title=Theoretical Paper: Ethnic Cleansing |encyclopedia=Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306173512/http://www.massviolence.org/Ethnic-Cleansing |archive-date=6 March 2016}} William Schabas states "ethnic cleansing is also a warning sign of genocide to come. Genocide is the last resort of the frustrated ethnic cleanser." Multiple genocide scholars have criticized distinguishing between ethnic cleansing and genocide, with Martin Shaw arguing that forced deportation necessarily results in the destruction of a group and this must be foreseen by the perpetrators.{{efn| "How could ‘forced deportation’ ever be achieved without extreme coercion, indeed violence? How, indeed, could deportation not be forced? How could people not resist? How could it not involve the destruction of a community, of the way of life that a group has enjoyed over a period of time? How could those who deported a group not intend this destruction? In what significant way is the forcible removal of a population from their homeland different from the destruction’ of a group? If the boundary between ‘cleansing’ and genocide is unreal, why police it?"}}Shaw, Martin (2015b), What is Genocide, Polity Press, ISBN 978-0-7456-8706-3 ‘Cleansing’ and genocide.

As a military, political, and economic tactic

File:Aftermath_of_a_massacre_(Labin,_December_194).jpg victims]]

File:Bundesarchiv R 49 Bild-0131, Aussiedlung von Polen im Wartheland.jpg. Poles are led to trains under German army escort, as part of the ethnic cleansing of western Poland annexed to the German Reich following the invasion.]]

File:Evstafiev-bosnia-travnik-girl-doll-refugee.jpg from the Lašva Valley close by Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina that were forced out of their homes and villages by Croat forces in 1993]]

File:Branjevo Military Farm Grave Exhumation.jpg carried out by Serb forces, part of the ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian War]]

File:Evdokimov Nikolay Ivanovich.jpg, who organized the extermination campaigns of "Tsitsekun", designated Russian military operations targeting Circassian natives by the term “ochishchenie” (cleansing).{{Cite book |last=Richmond |first=Walter |title=The Circassian Genocide |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8135-6068-7 |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA |pages=96, 97 |chapter=4: 1864}}{{cite book |last=Levene |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Levene |isbn= 1-84511-057-9 | title=Genocide in the Age of the Nation-State Volume II: The Rise of the West and the Coming of Genocide |year=2005|pages=299–300|chapter=6: Declining Powers |publisher=175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010}}]]

File:Мухаджиры.jpg. According to some authors, Russian military forces massacred and forcibly deported between 95 and 97% of all native Circassians during the Circassian genocide.{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Adam |year=2016 |title=Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KC8lDwAAQBAJ&dq=Yevdokimov+circassian+deportations+deaths&pg=PA110 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-317-53386-3 |pages=108–110|via=Google Books}}{{Cite book |last=Richmond |first=Walter |title=The Circassian Genocide |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8135-6068-7 |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA |pages= 97, 132}}]]

The foibe massacres ({{Langx|it|massacri delle foibe}}; {{Langx|sl|poboji v fojbah}}; {{Langx|hr|masakri fojbe}}), or simply "the foibe", refers to ethnic cleansing, mass killings and deportations both during and immediately after World War II, mainly committed by Yugoslav Partisans and OZNA in the then-Italian territories{{efn|Successively lost by Italy to Yugoslavia after the Treaty of Peace (1947).}} of Julian March (Karst Region and Istria), Kvarner and Dalmatia, against local Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians){{sfn|Bloxham|Dirk Moses|2011}}{{sfn|Konrád|Barth|Mrňka|2021}} and Slavs, primarily members of fascist and collaborationist forces, and civilians opposed to the new Yugoslav authorities,{{sfn|Baracetti|2009|loc=p. 664, "That fascists were specifically targeted by the repression is also confirmed by various Italian sources. A letter attached to the Hazarich report on the excavations carried out in the foibe in 1943 mentions corpses of fascists thrown there; another the extractions of the bodies of "our unfortunate squadristi (members of the fascist militia). An Italian report on "the grim fate of Pisino" (a city in istria) mentions only the killings of squadristi, which contrasts markedly with the subsequent report on the German offensive: random shootings of civilians, burning of houses and bombings"}}{{sfn|Baracetti|2009|loc="In 1947, British envoy W. J. Sullivan wrote of Italians arrested and deported by Yugoslav forces from around Trieste: "There is little doubt, while some of the persons deported may have been innocent, others were undoubtedly active fascists with more than mere party memberships on their conscience. Some of these have returned to Trieste but have kept well out of the Allied authorities, not participating in enquiries about the deportations for fear of arrest and trial 'for their former fascist activities'"}}{{Cite web|last=Troha|first=Nevenka|date=2014|title=Nasilje vojnih in povojnih dni|url=https://www.sistory.si/11686/www.sistory.si/11686/42309|access-date=4 June 2023|website=www.sistory.si|publisher=Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino|language=sl|quote=By this definition, among the 601 victims [documented from the Trieste region], 475 were members of armed formations and 126 were civilians.}} and Italian, German, Croat and Slovene anti-communists against the regime of Josip Broz Tito, presumed to be associated with fascism, Nazism, collaboration with Axis{{sfn|Konrád|Barth|Mrňka|2021}}{{sfn|Rumici|2002|p=350}} and reventive purge of real, potential or presumed opponents of Titoism{{sfn|Italian-Slovene commission}} The foibe massacres were followed by the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus, which was the post-World War II exodus and departure of between 230,000 and 350,000 local ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians) towards Italy, and in smaller numbers, towards the Americas, Australia and South Africa.{{cite web|url=https://www.rainews.it/dl/rainews/articoli/giorno-ricordo-10-febbraio-2004-2014-dieci-anni-strage-foibe-eccidio-tito-comunisti-slavi-esodo-giuliano-dalmata-77ba65a1-a1e5-460e-bb57-946819b4b905.html|title=Il Giorno del Ricordo|date=February 10, 2014 |access-date=16 October 2021|language=it}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/spettacoli/lesodo-giuliano-dalmata-e-quegli-italiani-fuga-che-nacquero-1639585.html|title=L'esodo giuliano-dalmata e quegli italiani in fuga che nacquero due volte|date=February 5, 2019 |access-date=24 January 2023|language=it}} From 1947, after the war, they were subject by Yugoslav authorities to less violent forms of intimidation, such as nationalization, expropriation, and discriminatory taxation,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JHnEI2m5tFIC&pg=PA309|title=Genocide: Truth, Memory, and Representation|page=295|author=Pamela Ballinger|date=7 April 2009|publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0822392361|access-date=30 December 2015}} which gave them little option other than emigration.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ia-qdCeUaXIC&pg=PA136 |title=Ethnic Cleansing and the European Union – Page 136, Lynn Tesser|isbn=9781137308771|last1=Tesser|first1=L.|date=14 May 2013|publisher=Springer }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=da6acnbbEpAC&pg=PA103 |title=History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans |page=103 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0691086974 |last1=Ballinger|first1=Pamela|year=2003}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ykMVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA133|title=Refugees in the Age of Total War|pages=139, 143|author=Anna C. Bramwell, University of Oxford, UK|date=1988|publisher=Unwin Hyman |isbn=9780044451945}} In 1953, there were 36,000 declared Italians in Yugoslavia, just about 16% of the original Italian population before World War II.Matjaž Klemenčič, The Effects of the Dissolution of Yugoslavia on Minority Rights: the Italian Minority in Post-Yugoslav Slovenia and Croatia. See {{cite web |url=http://www.cliohres.net/books/7/26.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=23 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724111950/http://www.cliohres.net/books/7/26.pdf |archive-date=24 July 2011 }} According to the census organized in Croatia in 2001 and that organized in Slovenia in 2002, the Italians who remained in the former Yugoslavia amounted to 21,894 people (2,258 in Slovenia and 19,636 in Croatia).{{Croatian Census 2001 | url=http://web.dzs.hr/Eng/censuses/Census2001/Popis/E01_02_02/E01_02_02.html | title=12. Population by ethnicity, by towns/municipalities, census 2001 |access-date=10 June 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.stat.si/Popis2002/en/rezultati/rezultati_red.asp?ter=SLO&st=7|title=Popis 2002|access-date=10 June 2017}}

The resettlement policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 9th and 7th centuries BC is considered by some scholars to be one of the first cases of ethnic cleansing.{{cite news |title=Ethnic cleansing |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethnic-cleansing |work=Encyclopaedia Britannica}}

During the 1980s, in Lebanon, ethnic cleansing was common during all phases of the conflict, notable incidents were seen in the early phase of the war, such as the Damour massacre, the Karantina massacre, the Siege of the Tel al-Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp, and during the 1982 Lebanon War such as the Sabra and Shatila Massacre committed by Lebanese Maronite forces backed by Israel against Palestinian refugees and Lebanese Shia civilians. After the Israeli withdrawal from the Chouf, the Mountain War broke out, where ethnic cleansings (mostly in the form of tit-for-tat killings) occurred. During that time, the Syrian backed, mostly Druze dominated People's Liberation Army used a policy they called "territorial cleansing" to "drain" the Chouf of Maronite Christians in order to deny them of resisting the advance of the PSP. As a result, 163,670 Christian villagers were displaced due to these operations. In response to these massacres, the Lebanese Forces conducted a similar policy, which resulted in 20,000 Druze displaced.{{cite news |title=News |work=An-Nahar |date=16 August 1991}}{{cite journal |last1=Kanafani-Zahar |first1=Aïda |title=La réconciliation des druzes et des chrétiens du Mont Liban ou le retour à un code coutumier |journal=Critique Internationale |date=2004 |volume=2 |issue=23 |pages=55-75 |url=https://shs.cairn.info/revue-critique-internationale-2004-2-page-55?lang=fr |language=French}}

Ethnic cleansing was a common phenomenon in the wars in Croatia, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This entailed intimidation, forced expulsion, or killing of the unwanted ethnic group as well as the destruction of the places of worship, cemeteries and cultural and historical buildings of that ethnic group in order to alter the population composition of an area in the favour of another ethnic group which would become the majority.

According to numerous ICTY verdicts and indictments, Serb{{cite web|url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/060926.pdf|title=Prosecutor v. Vujadin Popovic, Ljubisa Beara, Drago Nikolic, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Radivoje Miletic, Milan Gvero, and Vinko Pandurevic|quote=In the Motion, the Prosecution submits that both the existence and implementation of the plan to create an ethnically pure Bosnian Serb state by Bosnian Serb political and military leaders are facts of common knowledge and have been held to be historical and accurate in a wide range of sources.|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=11 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211211023111/https://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tdec/en/060926.pdf|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/icty/brdjanin/trialc/judgement/index.htm |title=ICTY: Radoslav Brđanin judgement |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090414072922/http://www.un.org/icty/brdjanin/trialc/judgement/index.htm |archive-date=14 April 2009 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.icty.org/sid/7537|title=Tadic Case: The Verdict|quote=Importantly, the objectives remained the same: to create an ethnically pure Serb State by uniting Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and extending that State from the FRY [...] to the Croatian Krajina along the important logistics and supply line that went through opstina Prijedor, thereby necessitating the expulsion of the non-Serb population of the opstina.|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=14 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014175448/https://www.icty.org/sid/7537|url-status=live}} and Croat{{cite web|url=http://www.icty.org/x/cases/prlic/acdec/en/080311.pdf|title=Prosecutor v. Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic|quote=Significantly, the Trial Chamber held that a reasonable Trial Chamber, could make a finding beyond any reasonable doubt that all of these acts were committed to carry out a plan aimed at changing the ethnic balance of the areas that formed Herceg-Bosna and mainly to deport the Muslim population and other non-Croat population out of Herceg-Bosna to create an ethnically pure Croatian territory within Herceg-Bosna.|access-date=8 February 2023|archive-date=5 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905185823/https://www.icty.org/x/cases/prlic/acdec/en/080311.pdf|url-status=live}} forces performed ethnic cleansing of their territories planned by their political leadership to create ethnically pure states (Republika Srpska and Republic of Serbian Krajina by the Serbs; and Herzeg-Bosnia by the Croats).

Survivors of the ethnic cleansing were left severely traumatized as a consequence of this campaign.{{sfnp|Weine|Becker|Vojvoda|Hodzic|1998|p=147}}

Israeli herders have engaged in a systemic displacement of Palestinian herders in Area C of the West Bank as a form of nationalist and economic warfare.{{cite journal| first=Saad |last=Amira |year=2021 |title=The slow violence of Israeli settler-colonialism and the political ecology of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank |journal=Settler Colonial Studies |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=512–532 |doi=10.1080/2201473X.2021.2007747|s2cid=244736676 }}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/21/the-most-successful-land-grab-strategy-since-1967-as-settlers-push-bedouins-off-west-bank-territory |title='The most successful land-grab strategy since 1967' as settlers push Bedouins off West Bank territory |date= October 21, 2023|work=The Guardian |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231022174942/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/21/the-most-successful-land-grab-strategy-since-1967-as-settlers-push-bedouins-off-west-bank-territory |archive-date=22 Oct 2023 |last1=Graham-Harrison |first1=Emma |last2=Kierszenbaum |first2=Quique |location=Ein Rashash}}{{cite web |title=בעוד העיניים נשואות לדרום ולעזה, הטיהור האתני בגדה מואץ |language=he |url=https://www.mekomit.co.il/%D7%91%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%93-%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%A0%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%90%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%9C%D7%93%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%9D-%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%A2%D7%96%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%98%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95/ |date=19 Oct 2023 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231022180318/https://www.mekomit.co.il/%D7%91%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%93-%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%A0%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%90%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%9C%D7%93%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%9D-%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%A2%D7%96%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%98%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95/ |archive-date=22 Oct 2023 |work=Mekomit |last=Ziv |first=Oren |trans-title=While the eyes are on the south and Gaza, the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank is accelerating}}{{cite web |title=Displaced Communities, Forgotten People: Israel’s Forcible Transfer of Palestinians in the West Bank |url=https://www.yesh-din.org/en/displaced-communities-forgotten-people-israels-forcible-transfer-of-palestinians-in-the-west-bank/ |date=4 Apr 2025 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250406163419/https://www.yesh-din.org/en/displaced-communities-forgotten-people-israels-forcible-transfer-of-palestinians-in-the-west-bank/ |archive-date=6 Apr 2025 |quote=The main conclusion of Displaced Communities, Forgotten People is that Israel is responsible for the commission of the war crime of forcible transfer of Palestinians in the West Bank. This crime is committed with the state’s support, by its agents or citizens. Moreover, the state’s deep involvement in the commission of these crimes, its practices, their systemic nature and their replication in various locations, lead to the grim conclusion that, in certain parts of the West Bank, the State of Israel is implementing practices of ethnic cleansing. |publisher=Yesh Din}}

When enforced as part of a political settlement, as happened with the expulsion of Germans after World War II through the forced resettlement of ethnic Germans to Germany in its reduced borders after 1945, the forced population movements, constituting a type of ethnic cleansing, may contribute to long-term stability of a post-conflict nation.Judt, Tony (2005). Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. Penguin Press.{{page needed|date=September 2016}} Some justifications may be made as to why the targeted group will be moved in the conflict resolution stages, as in the case of the ethnic Germans, some individuals of the large German population in Czechoslovakia and prewar Poland had encouraged Nazi jingoism before World War II, but this was forcibly resolved.{{page needed|date=September 2016}}

According to historian Norman Naimark, during an ethnic cleansing process, there may be destruction of physical symbols of the victims including temples, books, monuments, graveyards, and street names: "Ethnic cleansing involves not only the forced deportation of entire nations but the eradication of the memory of their presence."{{Cite book |last=Naimark |first=Norman M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L-QLXnX16kAC |title=Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe |date=2002-09-19 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00994-3 |pages=209–211 |language=en}} In many cases, the side perpetrating the alleged ethnic cleansing and its allies have fiercely disputed the charge.{{Clarify|reason=please expand this|date=February 2024}}

Instances

Explanatory notes

Notes

References

{{Cite journal|last=Baracetti|first=Gaia|date=2009|title=Foibe: Nationalism, Revenge and Ideology in Venezia Giulia and Istria, I943-5|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40542981|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=44|issue=4|pages=657–674|doi=10.1177/0022009409339344|jstor=40542981|s2cid=159919208|issn=0022-0094}}
{{cite journal

| doi=10.2307/20045626

| last=Bell-Fialkoff | first=Andrew

| title=A Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing

| journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=72 |issue=3 |year=1993

| url=http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19930601faessay5199/andrew-bell-fialkoff/a-brief-history-of-ethnic-cleansing.html

| jstor=20045626 |pages=110–121 |url-status=dead

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040203190219/http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19930601faessay5199/andrew-bell-fialkoff/a-brief-history-of-ethnic-cleansing.html

| archive-date=February 3, 2004 }}

{{cite book

| first1 = Donald

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| author-link1 = Donald Bloxham

| first2 = Anthony

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| editor-first2 = Robert

| editor-last2 = Gerwarth

| title = Political Violence in Twentieth-Century Europe

| chapter = Genocide and ethnic cleansing

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| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200223115751/https://www.kozina.com/premik/indexeng_porocilo.htm

| archive-date = 23 February 2020

| chapter = Period 1941–1945

| chapter-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201105021740/http://www.kozina.com/premik/poreng4.htm

| ref={{harvid|Italian-Slovene commission}}

}}

{{cite book

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| title = Collective Identities and Post-War Violence in Europe, 1944–48

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| access-date = 5 November 2022

}}

{{cite journal

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| title=Ethnic Cleansing – An Attempt at Methodology

| journal=European Journal of International Law |volume=5 |issue=4 |year=1998

| page=817 |url=http://www.ejil.org/pdfs/5/1/1247.pdf }}

{{cite journal

| last = Thum | first = Gregor

| year = 2010

| title = Review: Ethnic Cleansing in Eastern Europe after 1945

| journal= Contemporary European History | volume= 19 | issue=1 | pages= 75–81

| doi=10.1017/S0960777309990257 | s2cid = 145605508

}}

Vladimir Petrović (2007), [http://www.komunikacija.org.rs/komunikacija/casopisi/Hereticus/V_1/02/show_download?stdlang=ser_lat Etnicizacija čišćenja u reči i nedelu] (Ethnicisation of Cleansing), Hereticus 1/2007, 11–36
{{cite book

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| language = it

| title = Infoibati (1943–1945). I Nomi, I Luoghi, I Testimoni, I Documenti

| year = 2002

| publisher = Ugo Mursia

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=x0ZnAAAAMAAJ&q=massacri+foibe+sloveni+croati+anticomunisti

| isbn = 978-88-425-2999-6

}}

{{cite journal |last1=Weine |last2=Becker |last3=Vojvoda |last4=Hodzic |title=Individual change after genocide in Bosnian survivors of "ethnic cleansing": Assessing personality dysfunction |first1 = Stevan M. |first2= Daniel F. |first3=Dolores |first4=Emir |year=1998 |doi=10.1023/A:1024469418811 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pmid=9479683 |journal=Journal of Traumatic Stress |pages=147–153 |s2cid=31419500 }}