One month after the Gaza ceasefire, and the prospect of a just and lasting resolution feels as distant as ever. In Gaza, Israel continues to dictate the terms of an increasingly fragile peace – obstructing humanitarian access, committing near-daily ceasefire violations, and showing little sign of any genuine commitment to withdrawal or reconstruction.  

But it is in the West Bank that Israel’s true intentions are most clearly revealed. While global attention has remained fixed on Gaza, Netanyahu’s government has quietly pressed ahead with the steady consolidation of its grip on the occupied territory. 

This year has already seen record levels of settler violence, carried out with the active support of the Israeli government and army. The weeks following the ceasefire have been no exception. In the past month alone, Israeli forces and settlers have carried out more than 2,300 attacks across the occupied West Bank, terrorising inhabitants and forcibly displacing Palestinians from their homes through demolitions, arbitrary arrests, physical assaults and the uprooting of over 1,000 olive trees.

Mere weeks after the ceasefire was announced, the Knesset advanced a bill to annex the West Bank, a move that would constitute a clear breach of international law. And just this week, the government issued tenders for 356 new settlement housing units in the territory. This follows its revival of the controversial E1 settlement plan, a project that would cut the West Bank in two –  a clear attempt to bury any remaining hopes for a two-state solution. 

These are not the actions of a government interested in peace, but of one intent on erasing, piece by piece, the separate identity of the Palestinian people and their culture and the very state that the UK and other western nations have finally recognised. 

It is futile to hope that Israel will change course on its own. Even Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s so-called ‘liberal’ opposition party, voted in favour of the recent annexation bill (though this is hardly surprising, given his party’s own record of deepening the settlement project while in power). 

In the absence of meaningful pressure from within the Israeli political system, it falls to the international community to dismantle the exceptional treatment that Israel has long enjoyed and make clear that its persistent violations of international law will no longer be met with impunity. Sanctions against individuals are insufficient; real leverage can only come through measures that undermine the economic viability of the occupation. 

As with the fight against apartheid in South Africa, there is huge support for, and good logic to, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. But given the entanglement of Israel’s settlements within its economy and politics, the Liberal Democrat policy of a ban on settlement trade is the logical starting point. 

Any ban must include all forms of trade, not only in goods but also in services and investments. This would send a clear signal to firms such as JC Bamford Excavators (JCB), whose machinery has been used to demolish Palestinian homes, and Barclays, which has supplied billions in loans and services to companies linked to settlement expansion, that Britain will not tolerate profit derived from illegal activity.

Such a move would target the illegal settlement enterprise directly. It would not be a boycott of Israel itself, but a precise measure targeting an occupation that has been ruled unlawful under international law. 

The UK has both a legal and a moral obligation to act. The ICJ’s July 2024 advisory opinion reaffirmed that states must not recognise or assist the illegal occupation in any form, including through trade. Several European countries, Slovenia and Ireland among them, have already moved to ban settlement trade. In the UK, the legislation to do so exists in the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018. All the pieces are in place; the only thing missing is the political will. 

Recognition without action is meaningless. The UK cannot claim to support Palestinian statehood while standing idly by as its businesses profit from the settlements eroding it. 

And while we are not the party in power, we must not underestimate our ability to help push the government into taking this crucial next step. We campaigned long and hard in the build-up to the recognition announcement, using every lever available to us – from letters to ministers and private members’ bills, to countless media appearances and parliamentary interventions. We must channel that same focus and energy again. 

A ban on settlement trade has been party policy since 2021, and now is the moment to act on that commitment. Just as the government must match its words with deeds, we too have a responsibility to keep ramping up the pressure to ensure that recognition is not merely symbolic, but a catalyst for real and lasting change.

* Maggs Mackechnie is on the Committee of Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine. She is currently Vice Chair and soon to be Chair of my local party, Canterbury and Coastal Lib Dems