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Last Monday, amid a combined speech by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, fellow lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I raised a banner urging the acknowledgment of Palestine. We were forcibly removed from the legislative session, exposing the fragile condition of what's often described as the "only democracy in the Middle East". How can leaders speak about regional peace while refusing to recognize a population deprived of fundamental liberties and rights under long-standing occupation?

The Reality in the West Bank

Nowhere is the hypocrisy more apparent than in the controlled West Bank. There, words of peace sound remote and weak, while the terrifying sounds of colonist attacks and terror persist loudly. More than 30 occurrences of violence by settlers against Palestinians have been documented since the unveiling of the Trump administration's 20-point plan in late September, including attacks, stealing of crops, and torching of vehicles and belongings.

Systematic Violence During Harvest Season

The increase in settler terrorism is not coincidental. This period signals the start of agricultural harvesting. More than a crucial economic event, it constitutes an important communal and cultural moment that demonstrates endurance under military rule. Exactly for these causes, annually settlers target Palestinians throughout this crucial period. During the 2024 harvest season, rights groups recorded 113 distinct incidents of violence, intimidation, preventing harvesting, or destruction to olive trees and crops by Israeli civilians and soldiers, which took place on territories belonging to 51 Palestinian-owned villages, towns, and communities.

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

The human rights group also discovered that "Israeli security forces appeared to have had a larger role in hindering the harvesting season". In about 70% of cases where access to farmland was violently blocked, troops, border police officers, and settlement civilian security coordinators were physically present. They either directly prevented Palestinian farmers from reaching and gathering their own lands, or neglected to prevent colonists who threatened or attacked them.

Government Support for Colonization

This is no shock, as the leader of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed 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 particular military coordination team removed private olive plants of Palestinians, citing missing documentation, but ignored violations by an unauthorized nearby colonist encampment. Last week, the local court decided to stop all construction in the encampment, which was constructed on lands taken by Israeli authorities and unlawfully given to settlers.

Annexation Goals and International Response

In the occupied West Bank, colonist violence is simply a tool used by the administration to pursue de-facto annexation. Earlier this month, Smotrich headed a march of many of settlers in support of annexation the West Bank. He was reported as stating, "We persist to take hold with our presence of the territory with many pioneers, many champions, and countless of settlers who live in this area of the land ... we must to normalise it and make it eternal."

The colonists and their backers in the Knesset are clear about their motives and goals. Why, then, do government officials in the Western nations hesitate from substantial penalties and political actions? Smotrich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in the summer, but the effect of the sanction has been minimal. He may not be permitted to go to the United Kingdom and visit the West End, but he still maintains the governmental authority to take lands in the West Bank. Remarkably in the declaration of sanctions, the UK emphasized they take place "in his personal capacity" only.

Global Acknowledgment and Reality

If the UK government recognizes the truth of colonist aggression and its serious consequences on Palestinian life, why does it still permit goods from settlements to be marketed in stores and shops in Britain? If the British leader is genuine about recognition of Palestine as a state, how come he permit the Israeli administration to breach its sovereignty with such violent means? Or was the recognition an hollow tactic to shut down opposition in the United Kingdom, a hollow gesture only to be implemented in the relabeling of some cartographic representations?

Pathway to True Resolution

A fair peace must honor the basic entitlements of the Palestinian people for self-recognition, independence, and liberty from occupation and siege. Only when every human being's worth between the Jordan River and sea is honored can we genuinely say peace has been achieved.

True resolution demands an sovereign Palestinian state alongside the Israeli state: this is the sole formula that has consensus among the international community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace camp.

The former US president may have inflicted influence on Netanyahu to stop the violence, but he probably only did so because the burden of his connection with the isolated government of the Israeli PM had become too great. The large demonstrations across the globe for the liberation of Palestinian territories, and the unwavering anti-government demonstrations inside Israel, are the real forces behind this influence.

It is due to this enormous civil movement that a truce has been signed, the hostages freed, and the people of the territory can experience safeguard from annihilation. Following the truce arrangement has been signed, it is crucial to keep maintaining this influence. The international community has ignored to the atrocities in the strip for too long; it must not make the same mistake in the West Bank.