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Last week, amid a joint address by US President Donald Trump and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, colleague lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I displayed a banner urging the acknowledgment of Palestine. We were violently ejected from the parliamentary session, revealing the fragile state of what's frequently portrayed as the "sole democratic state in the region". How can officials speak about Middle East peace while refusing to recognize a population deprived of basic freedoms and entitlements under long-standing military control?

The Situation in the Occupied West Bank

Nowhere is the deceit more apparent than in the occupied West Bank. There, words of reconciliation sound distant and faint, while the terrifying echoes of settler violence and intimidation persist loudly. Over 30 incidents of violence by settlers against Palestinians have been recorded since the announcement of the Trump administration's peace proposal in September's end, featuring physical assaults, stealing of crops, and torching of vehicles and belongings.

Targeted Aggression During Agricultural Period

The rise in violence by colonists is not coincidental. This time marks the start of harvest seasons. Beyond a crucial economic event, it constitutes an important communal and national occasion that demonstrates endurance under military rule. Precisely for these causes, annually colonists target Palestinian farmers during this crucial time. During the 2024 harvest period, human rights organizations recorded 113 distinct incidents of violence, harassment, harvest-thwarting, or damage to olive groves and produce by Israeli civilians and soldiers, which occurred on lands belonging to 51 Palestinian communities, towns, and areas.

Israel's military appeared to have played a greater part in hindering the olive harvest

Yesh Din also discovered that "Israeli security forces appeared to have played a greater part in hindering the olive harvest". In about 70% of cases where entry to lands was forcibly blocked, troops, border guards, and settlement security officials were actually on site. They either personally prevented Palestinian farmers from reaching and gathering their own lands, or failed to stop settlers who threatened or assaulted them.

Government Support for Settler Activities

This is no shock, as the leader of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was named as an extra minister in the Ministry of Defence responsible for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. In one village, for instance, a special military coordination team uprooted private olive plants of local residents, citing missing documentation, but ignored infractions by an illegal adjacent colonist encampment. Last week, the local court ruled to stop all building work in the outpost, which was built on lands taken by Israeli authorities and unlawfully transferred to colonists.

Takeover Ambitions and International Reaction

In the occupied West Bank, settler terrorism is simply a instrument used by the government to achieve practical annexation. Recently, Smotrich led a march of many of colonists in favor of annexation the West Bank. He was quoted as saying, "We are continuing to take hold with our feet of the Land of Israel with numerous settlers, numerous heroes, and hundreds of thousands of colonists who live in this area of the territory ... we must to normalize it and establish it permanently."

The colonists and their backers in the parliament are explicit about their motives and intentions. Why, then, do government officials in the west refrain from meaningful penalties and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was penalized by the UK in the summer, but the impact of the penalty has been limited. He may not be permitted to go to the United Kingdom and tour the West End, but he still enjoys the ministerial power to take lands in the West Bank. Even in the declaration of penalties, the British government highlighted they apply "in his personal capacity" solely.

International Acknowledgment and Reality

If the UK government recognizes the truth of colonist aggression and its grave implications on Palestinian existence, why does it still allow goods from settlements to be sold in markets and outlets in Britain? If Starmer is genuine about acknowledging Palestinian statehood as a sovereign entity, how come he permit the Israeli administration to breach its sovereignty with such aggressive methods? Or was the acknowledgment an empty tactic to shut down opposition in the UK, a hollow gesture only to be implemented in the relabeling of some maps?

Pathway to Genuine Peace

A just peace must respect the basic entitlements of the Palestinian people for self-determination, independence, and liberty from military occupation and blockade. Only when each person's worth across the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is honored can we genuinely declare peace has been achieved.

Genuine resolution demands an independent Palestinian state next to the Israeli state: this is the only solution that enjoises consensus among the international community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace advocates.

The former US president may have inflicted influence on Netanyahu to halt the genocide, but he likely only did so because the strain of his relationship with the pariah regime of Netanyahu had become too great. The mass protests across the globe for the freedom of Palestinian territories, and the persistent opposition protests within Israel, are the real forces behind this influence.

It is thanks to this massive public campaign that a ceasefire has been signed, the hostages freed, and the residents of the territory can experience safeguard from annihilation. After the ceasefire agreement has been signed, it is vital to keep maintaining this pressure. The international community has ignored to the violence in the strip for too long; it must not make the same mistake in the West Bank.