Irish MEP witnessed Israeli settlers presiding over 'brutal apartheid system' in West Bank

AN IRISH MEP has described the governance of the occupied West Bank as a “brutal system of apartheid” after travelling through the region last week, saying the scale of restrictions on Palestinian daily life was “much worse” than he expected.

Speaking to The Journal during a visit to East Jerusalem and parts of the occupied West Bank, Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews said the reality on the ground had reinforced his belief that the EU must increase pressure on Israel through sanctions linked to illegal settlements.

“What I am witnessing here is shocking,” Andrews said.

You read about these things, but to see it in real life and talk to the people affected on a daily basis is something very different.

The MEP said he had witnessed examples of systemic restrictions on Palestinians, ranging from movement controls and segregated roads to the inability of Palestinians in parts of the West Bank to obtain building permits.

“Only the Israeli settlers are able to get building permits in the West Bank. Palestinians can’t get them,” Andrews said.

“There are roads Palestinians aren’t allowed to travel on. There are areas they’re excluded from entirely. It’s a very systematic effort to squeeze Palestinian daily life.”

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. Under the Oslo Accords, two peace agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation aimed at establishing a two-state solution in the 1990s, the West Bank territory was divided into Areas A, B and C.

Area A is under full Palestinian Authority control, Area B is under joint Palestinian/Israeli control, and Area C, the largest portion and the region where most illegal settlements are located, remains under full Israeli control.

Across the entirety of the occupied West Bank, more than 700,000 settlers (around 7% of Israel’s population of more than 10 million) now live in 150 settlements and 128 outposts.

Settlers are Israeli citizens who live on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The vast majority of the settlements have been built either entirely or partially on private Palestinian land.

All Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.

Andrews said the expansion of settlements and settler violence has accelerated dramatically in recent years.

“There’s been an exponential increase in attacks by settlers and the expansion of settlements since the first Trump administration,” Andrews said.

He added that since Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel in October 2023, which triggered a massive military response from Israel and resulted in their genocidal war on Gaza, settler violence in the West Bank “has accelerated again”.

“The policy isn’t ad hoc in any way. It’s very deliberate fragmentation of Palestinian areas and Palestinian villages to make a two-state solution completely unviable.”

During the trip, Andrews met Palestinian women in East Jerusalem who described living in constant fear.

“They wear hijabs, and because of that, they feel like they have a target on their back. I don’t think they’re exaggerating.”

He described Jerusalem as having become a “suffocating environment”.

“You realise very quickly this isn’t accidental,” Andrews added.

“It’s a deliberate policy of hollowing out Palestinian life and making it harder at every turn – getting to work, getting to school, moving around.”

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The MEP also visited communities in the northern Jordan Valley, where he said entire villages had been abandoned following repeated settler attacks.

“There are attacks by violent settlers four or five times a day in some places,” he claimed.

Andrews specifically referenced the recent destruction of the school at Hammamat al-Maleh in the Jordan Valley, which had been co-funded by Irish Aid and several EU states.

The school, which served around 60 children, was demolished by illegal settlers.

Ireland and several European partners are now seeking compensation from Israel for the destruction.

Asked whether compensation alone was enough, Andrews said the wider issue was the “complete impunity” surrounding attacks on Palestinian civilian infrastructure.

“This is happening all the time,” Andrews said.

The problem is, there are never any consequences.

EU response

Andrews said his visit had strengthened his support for stronger EU measures against Israel.

“When EU sanctions are applied, they lose access to banking and their ability to trade. That does hurt them.”

On Monday, 27 foreign ministers of the EU approved new sanctions on Israeli settlers over rising violence against Palestinians.

EU officials said that seven settlers or settler organisations would be sanctioned.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said it was “high time we move from deadlock to delivery.

“Extremisms and violence carry consequences,” she added.

Despite this, Andrews said the biggest leverage available to Europe remained the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which governs trade and political cooperation between the bloc and Israel.

The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, with trade between both sides worth more than €42 billion in 2024.

“If the EU moved on the Association Agreement it would have a massive chilling effect,” Andrews said.

It would force the Israeli government to make a choice between its economy and supporting violent settlement expansion.

He noted that opposition from a few member states, including Germany and Italy, was blocking further action.

Andrews also defended Ireland’s push to progress the Occupied Territories Bill, which would ban trade with illegal settlements.

The government has repeatedly committed to advancing the legislation before the end of the year, though it has come under criticism from opposition parties and activist groups for lagging on enacting the bill.

Andrews said he believed Ireland’s stance on Palestine was increasingly becoming mainstream within Europe.

“We were among the first countries pushing for recognition of Palestine and stronger pressure,” Andrews said.

“But more and more countries are moving in that direction now.”

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