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Last week, during a combined speech by American leader Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, colleague lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I raised a sign calling for the recognition of the Palestinian state. We were forcibly ejected from the legislative session, exposing the weak condition of what's often portrayed as the "only democratic state in the Middle East". How can officials speak about Middle East peace while declining to acknowledge a population deprived of fundamental freedoms and entitlements under decades-long occupation?

The Situation in the West Bank

Nowhere is the deceit more apparent than in the controlled West Bank. There, talk of peace sound remote and weak, while the terrifying echoes of colonist attacks and intimidation persist strongly. More than 30 incidents of settler aggression against Palestinian civilians have been recorded since the announcement of the US peace proposal in September's end, featuring attacks, theft of agricultural produce, and torching of cars and property.

Targeted Aggression During Harvest Season

The increase in violence by colonists is not coincidental. This time marks the beginning of agricultural harvesting. More than a crucial economic event, it constitutes an significant communal and cultural moment that shows endurance under occupation. Exactly for these reasons, year after year colonists attack Palestinian farmers throughout this precious time. During the 2024 harvest period, human rights organizations recorded 113 separate cases of violence, harassment, harvest-thwarting, or destruction to olive groves and crops involving settlers and military personnel, which occurred on territories belonging to 51 Palestinian-owned communities, municipalities, and areas.

Israel's security forces appeared to have played a larger part in obstructing the olive harvest

Yesh Din also discovered that "Israel's security forces seemed to have played a greater part in obstructing the harvesting season". In approximately 70% of cases where entry to lands was forcibly blocked, troops, border guards, and settlement security officials were physically present. They either directly prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing and harvesting their property, or neglected to stop settlers who harassed or assaulted them.

Government Support for Colonization

This is no surprise, as the leader of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was named as an extra official in the Defense Ministry responsible for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. In Umm al-Khair, for example, a special COGAT unit removed personally-owned olive trees of local residents, citing missing documentation, but ignored violations by an illegal nearby settler outpost. Last week, the Jerusalem district court ruled to stop all building work in the encampment, which was constructed on lands seized by Israel and unlawfully transferred to colonists.

Annexation Ambitions and Global Reaction

In the controlled West Bank, settler terrorism is simply a instrument used by the administration to achieve practical annexation. Recently, Smotrich headed a march of many of colonists in favor of annexation the West Bank. He was quoted as saying, "We persist to take hold with our feet of the territory with many settlers, numerous champions, and countless of colonists who live in this part of the territory ... we must to normalise it and establish it permanently."

The colonists and their backers in the parliament are clear about their motives and intentions. Why, then, do political leaders in the west refrain from meaningful penalties and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in June, but the impact of the penalty has been limited. He may not be permitted to travel to the UK and visit the London's entertainment district, but he still enjoys the governmental authority to seize territories in the West Bank. Even in the declaration of penalties, the British government emphasized they take place "personally" solely.

International Recognition and Actual Situation

If the UK government acknowledges the truth of settler violence and its serious consequences on Palestinian existence, why does it still allow goods from settlements to be sold in stores and outlets in Britain? If the British leader is serious about recognition of Palestine as a sovereign entity, how can he permit the Israeli administration to breach its sovereignty with such violent means? Or was the recognition an hollow tactic to shut down dissenting voices in the UK, a meaningless gesture only to be realised in the relabeling of some cartographic representations?

Route Toward True Peace

A just resolution must honor the fundamental entitlements of the Palestinian population for self-determination, independence, and freedom from occupation and blockade. Only when each person's worth across the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is respected can we truly declare reconciliation has been attained.

True resolution requires an sovereign Palestinian state next to Israel: this is the sole formula that enjoises consensus among the international community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace advocates.

Trump may have applied pressure on the Israeli leader to halt the violence, but he probably only did so because the burden of his relationship with the pariah regime of Netanyahu had become excessive. The large demonstrations across the world for the liberation of Palestinian territories, and the persistent opposition protests inside Israel, are the actual factors behind this pressure.

It is due to this enormous civil movement that a truce has been signed, the hostages released, and the people of Gaza can enjoy safeguard from destruction. After the truce arrangement has been finalized, it is crucial to continue maintaining this influence. The international community has ignored to the atrocities in the strip for many years; it must not make the same mistake in the West Bank.