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Last Monday, amid a joint speech by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, fellow parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I raised a sign calling for the recognition of Palestine. We were violently ejected from the legislative assembly, revealing the weak state of what's frequently described as the "only democratic state in the region". How can leaders speak about regional peace while refusing to recognize a population denied of fundamental liberties and rights under decades-long military control?

The Reality in the West Bank

In no place is the hypocrisy more evident than in the controlled West Bank. There, talk of reconciliation sound distant and faint, while the terrifying sounds of settler violence and terror continue loudly. More than 30 occurrences of violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians have been recorded since the announcement of the Trump administration's 20-point plan in late September, featuring physical assaults, theft of crops, and burning of cars and property.

Systematic Aggression During Agricultural Period

The increase in violence by colonists is not coincidental. This period signals the beginning of agricultural harvesting. More than a vital economic activity, it constitutes an important communal and cultural occasion that shows resilience under occupation. Precisely for these reasons, year after year colonists attack Palestinian farmers throughout this precious period. During the 2024 harvest season, rights groups documented 113 separate incidents of violence, intimidation, harvest-thwarting, or destruction to olive groves and produce by Israeli civilians and soldiers, which took place on territories belonging to 51 Palestinian villages, municipalities, and communities.

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

The human rights group also discovered that "Israel's military appeared to have played a larger part in obstructing the olive harvest". In approximately 70% of instances where access to lands was forcibly blocked, soldiers, border police officers, and settlement civilian security coordinators were actually on site. They either directly stopped Palestinian farmers from reaching and harvesting their property, or failed to stop settlers who harassed or assaulted them.

Government Backing for Settler Activities

This comes as no shock, as the head of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed as an additional official in the Defense Ministry in charge of the territorial coordination unit. In Umm al-Khair, for example, a particular COGAT unit uprooted private olive plants of Palestinians, claiming lack of permits, but ignored infractions by an unauthorized adjacent colonist encampment. Last week, the local court decided to stop all construction in the encampment, which was built on lands taken by Israel and illegally transferred to colonists.

Annexation Ambitions and Global Response

In the occupied West Bank, colonist violence is nothing but a instrument used by the government to pursue practical annexation. Earlier this month, Smotrich headed a procession of thousands of settlers in favor of taking over the West Bank. He was quoted as saying, "We persist to establish presence with our feet of the Land of Israel with numerous settlers, many heroes, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who reside in this area of the land ... we must to normalise it and make it eternal."

The colonists and their backers in the parliament are clear about their motives and intentions. Why, then, do government officials in the Western nations hesitate from meaningful penalties and political actions? Smotrich was penalized by the UK in June, but the impact of the sanction has been limited. He may not be permitted to go to the United Kingdom and tour the London's entertainment district, but he still enjoys the governmental authority to take territories in the West Bank. Remarkably in the declaration of penalties, the British government emphasized they apply "personally" solely.

International Acknowledgment and Reality

If the UK government acknowledges the reality of settler violence and its grave consequences on Palestinian life, why does it still allow settlement produce to be sold in markets and outlets in Britain? If Starmer is serious about recognition of Palestine as a sovereign entity, how can he allow the Israeli administration to breach its sovereignty with such aggressive methods? Or was the acknowledgment an hollow ploy to silence opposition in the UK, a meaningless act only to be implemented in the relabeling of some cartographic representations?

Pathway to True Peace

A fair peace must honor the basic entitlements of the Palestinian population for self-determination, sovereignty, and freedom from occupation and blockade. Only when every person's worth between the river and Mediterranean Sea is respected can we genuinely say reconciliation has been achieved.

Genuine resolution demands an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel: this is the sole solution that enjoises agreement among the international community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace camp.

The former US president may have inflicted pressure on the Israeli leader to stop the violence, but he probably only did so because the strain of his relationship with the pariah regime of the Israeli PM had become excessive. The large demonstrations throughout the world for the liberation of Palestinian territories, and the unwavering opposition protests within the country, are the actual factors behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this enormous civil movement that a ceasefire has been agreed, the hostages freed, and the people of Gaza can enjoy protection from annihilation. Following the ceasefire agreement has been finalized, it is crucial to keep applying this pressure. The international community has ignored to the atrocities in the strip for too long; it must not make the same mistake in the occupied territories.