Israeli occupation authorities have denied entry to an international parliamentary delegation, including Scottish National Party MP Lara Bird, after detaining and interrogating the group for approximately eight hours at the Allenby Bridge (King Hussein Bridge) crossing from Jordan into the occupied West Bank.

The Progressive International delegation of around 23 people, drawn from countries including the UK, Spain, France, Ireland, Greece, and others, had planned to attend the organization’s Second Ramallah Congress at Birzeit University, meet Palestinian students, academics, and civil society figures, and join Palestinian farmers during the annual olive harvest. Participants included Bird, Labour MP Clive Lewis, Scottish Greens MSP Kate Nevens, former Labour MP Sam Tarry, and Spanish senator Josu Estarrona Elizondo.

In a statement on X on Monday, Bird said the group was held, interrogated, and ultimately turned away “with no reason given.”

She had traveled “to stand alongside Palestinians being attacked for harvesting olives on their own land,” noting that “increased blockades, demolitions and unthinkable violence have become the norm” under the Israeli occupation forces and illegal settlers.

Bird promised to continue applying pressure on the Netanyahu regime over the “persecution and genocide of the Palestinian people.”

Other participants said they were shouted at and questioned about their intentions. Progressive International’s political coordinator Laila Hazaineh said the refusal would only strengthen the group’s determination to support Palestinian communities.

The incident occurs against the backdrop of one of the most violent olive harvest seasons on record in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli settlers, frequently operating with the protection or participation of occupation forces, have carried out hundreds of attacks on Palestinian farmers, uprooting or destroying thousands of olive trees, blocking access to groves, and assaulting harvesters.

UN agencies and Palestinian sources have documented the highest levels of settler violence in years, with October repeatedly flagged as particularly severe. Olive cultivation remains a vital source of livelihood and a symbol of Palestinian rootedness on their land under decades of occupation and creeping annexation.

This is not the first time the Israeli regime has barred international visitors seeking to document conditions in the occupied territories. In December 2025, a Canadian delegation, including six MPs, was similarly detained for hours and denied entry at the same crossing, with authorities citing vague “security” or “public order” grounds.

Palestinian officials and rights groups have long argued that such restrictions form part of a systematic effort to conceal the realities of military occupation, settlement expansion, land confiscation, and daily violence in the West Bank, actions that continue alongside the regime’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Iran has consistently condemned these policies, reaffirming its support for the Palestinian people’s legitimate resistance to occupation and its call for an end to the apartheid system imposed by the Zionist regime.

The barred legislators said they would continue efforts to highlight the situation and press their governments for accountability.