Escalating Settler Colonial Violence across the Occupied West Bank

Since October 2023, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and Zionist settlers have killed more than 1000 Palestinians in the West Bank. Villages have been burned, families have been forced from their homes, and ancestral lands have been stolen under the auspices of Israeli “security concerns” and “national development.” 

The escalating violence reflects Israel’s calculated military strategy of settler colonial domination and erasure. And while the Gaza genocide rages on, entire Palestinian communities across the southern Hebron Hills and the northen Jordan Valley are being targeted, ambushed, and razed in a campaign to empty the land and erase history.

Across the West Bank, Zionist settler militias under the protection of the IOF torch villages and shoot Bedouin shepherds. Families from Jenin to Susiya have watched homes, schools, and crops all go up in flames. Soldiers conduct nightly armed raids that entail detaining children, destroying property, and instilling terror. 

Israeli “firing zones” and “farming outposts” have become the legal weapons of choice to expel subsistence-based communities from their long-held lands. Palestinians are experiencing apartheid in its rawest and most brutal form. Their dispossession, detention, and even deaths are being carried out in the name of “law and order.”

In the colonial imagination of the Zionist settler and Israeli state, the West Bank represents a “new frontier” that must be cleansed and civilised, if not captured and conquered. An indigenous population is being subjugated to ethnic cleansing that is rationalized as a “security measure.” Undeniably, the Nakba (“catastrophe”) has never ended.

Israeli checkpoints, separation walls, and racist permit regimes stifle daily life for Palestinians. Communities are isolated, surveilled, and suffocating. Yet, they continue to resist the illegal occupation. Farmers return to olive groves despite arson attacks. Youth speak out against arbitrary arrests. Women confront IOF commanders at home demolitions.

Notably, Palestinians defy Israel’s apartheid regime each day. In the face of militarized destruction and settler hostility, they cultivate land, send children to school, and organize demonstrations. Palestinian resistance is by no means passive. It is rooted in sumud—steadfastness—and an unyielding resolve that asserts a right to remain on the land.

Neither Charity, Nor Saviorism: The International Solidarity Movement

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was created to support (not lead) the Palestinian struggle for liberation through direct action and protective presence. Protective presence sees international volunteers literally walk alongside Palestinians who are being subjected to racial violence and discrimination at the hands of settlers and soldiers. 

Putting solidarity into practice means showing up. It requires respectful listening and amplifying the voices of Palestinians who are pursuing self-determination. Accordingly, for over two decades, ISM volunteers have responded to calls for support by accompanying Palestinians whose villages, fields, homes, and families are under threat. 

Specifically, protective presence entails walking alongside shepherds on lands that Zionist settlers seek to seize, escorting children through checkpoints, and standing with families facing eviction. As a critical aspect of contesting colonial violence, ISM volunteers also document human rights abuses to shed light on the daily realities of Israeli apartheid globally. 

Importantly, protective presence is not about “saving” Palestinians who do not need outsiders to teach them how to resist. For generations, they have sustained collective practices of survival and defiance. It requires recognising the political agency of Palestinians, respecting their leadership, and recognizing that internationals are guests in a struggle that is not their own.

ISM rejects “saviorism” in all its forms. Solidarity demands humility and requires a shared commitment to dismantling systems of domination and ending structures of harm. It also mandates confronting local institutions and global networks—political, military, economic—that sustain Israeli apartheid and the atrocities of the Zionist movement.

As a leading example, the student encampments that swept universities since October 2023 have demonstrated a growing refusal to be complicit in colonial violence. Students challenged institutions that profit from genocide and created space for Palestinian voices. They remind us that solidarity is active, not abstract. They also taught us that standing with Palestine requires confronting authority, taking risks, and shutting down “business as usual.”

For many, the encampments sparked a sense of collective purpose and empowerment. Yet for others, the enormity of the oppression remains overwhelming. There is an urgent need to move beyond protest at home into frontline action. Joining Palestinians on their terms in their villages, fields, and homes is one effective way to directly counter Israeli apartheid. 

Taking a Stand and Showing Up: Protective Presence in Palestine

This is a critical moment. Home demolitions, land grabs, and armed raids across the West Bank are intensifying. Both the Israeli state and Zionist settlers are dispossessing, maiming, and murdering Palestinians as we speak—all while hoping the rest of the world simply stands by and stays quiet. If ever there was a time to act, it is now.

Amidst the occupation, Palestinians resisting apartheid face terror and intimidation that has been designed to crush their will. Yet they continue to stand strong, organize, and build life on their lands. The act of showing up in the occupied West Bank as an international volunteer sends a clear message: “You are not alone. We are with you.”

For those seeking to move from outrage to direct action, protective presence is one way to offer concrete solidarity to targeted Palestinian communities who are at once bearing the brunt of and resisting Israeli colonial violence. In addition to deterring daily attacks, it is a way to meaningfully contribute to a broader struggle for global justice.

ISM volunteers act in tangible ways to build relationships with Palestinian families. On-the-ground, internationals are trained and equipped to accompany shepherds, farmers, and children who are harassed by IOF soldiers and Zionist settlers. Others expose the realities of Israeli apartheid by sharing photos and videos that expose media bias and omission. 

Once home, ISM activists give political education seminars and advance BDS campaigns that target governments and corporations that are enabling Israel’s colonial onslaught. Returning volunteers also share testimony about the realities of the illegal occupation in the West Bank as a means of raising awareness, elevating Palestinian perspectives, and building unity.

Apartheid flourishes in isolation and settler colonial violence thrives in silence. International volunteers who take a stand and show up are crucial to breaking both. If the struggle for Palestinian liberation is indeed a crime, it is vital we all become “accomplices.” To join ISM in the occupied West Bank and support Palestinian communities under direct threat of forced expulsion, settler violence, and colonial harm, please visit: palsolidarity.org/join

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