Ethnic cleansing is an ideology that seeks to expel one ethnic group in its entirety, from the place where it lives by any means.
In the Palestinian context, ethnic cleansing is comprised of three stages. The first is to uproot people from their homes by force. The second stage is to erase their history and connection to the land. The third stage is to make sure they will never return to the land they once called home.
The Zionist movement in historic Palestine used ethnic cleansing to target Palestinians in 1948-1950. Israel continues to commit ethnic cleansing against Palestinians today.
And the third stage is to make sure that they will never come back. Zionist movement caused massive ethnic cleansing to Palestinians in 1948-1949 but continues to commit a slow ethnic cleansing process till today.