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Last week, during a joint address by American leader Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, colleague lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I raised a banner urging the acknowledgment of Palestine. We were violently ejected from the parliamentary session, revealing the weak state of what's often described as the "only democratic state in the Middle East". How can officials speak about Middle East peace while declining to recognize a people denied of basic liberties and rights under long-standing military control?

The Reality in the Occupied West Bank

In no place is the hypocrisy more apparent than in the occupied West Bank. There, talk of peace sound remote and weak, while the frightening echoes of colonist attacks and intimidation continue loudly. More than 30 incidents of violence by settlers against Palestinians have been recorded since the announcement of the Trump administration's peace proposal in late September, featuring physical assaults, theft of crops, and torching of cars and belongings.

Systematic Violence During Harvest Season

The rise in violence by colonists is deliberate. This time signals the beginning of harvest seasons. More than a crucial economic activity, it represents an important communal and cultural occasion 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, rights groups recorded 113 distinct cases of violence, harassment, preventing harvesting, or damage to olive groves and produce involving settlers and military personnel, which occurred on territories owned by 51 Palestinian villages, municipalities, and areas.

Israel's military appeared to have had a larger role in hindering the olive harvest

The human rights group also discovered that "Israeli security forces seemed to have played a greater part in hindering the olive harvest". In approximately 70% of cases where entry to farmland was violently prevented, soldiers, border guards, and settlement security officials were actually present. They either personally prevented Palestinians from reaching and gathering their own lands, or failed to stop settlers who threatened or assaulted them.

Government Support for Colonization

This is no shock, as the head of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed as an additional official in the Defense Ministry responsible for the territorial coordination unit. In one village, for instance, a special military coordination team removed private olive plants of local residents, claiming missing documentation, but overlooked infractions by an unauthorized nearby colonist encampment. Last week, the Jerusalem district court ruled to stop all construction in the outpost, which was built on lands taken by Israel and illegally transferred to colonists.

Takeover Ambitions and International Reaction

In the controlled West Bank, settler terrorism is nothing but a instrument used by the administration to achieve de-facto annexation. Recently, Smotrich headed a procession of many of colonists in favor of taking over the West Bank. He was reported as saying, "We persist to take hold with our presence of the Land of Israel with many settlers, many heroes, and countless of settlers who reside in this area of the territory ... we must to normalise it and establish it permanently."

The colonists and their supporters in the parliament are explicit about their motives and goals. Why, then, do political leaders in the Western nations refrain from meaningful penalties and political actions? Smotrich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in June, but the impact of the sanction has been minimal. He may not be permitted to go to the United Kingdom and tour the West End, but he still enjoys the governmental authority to take territories in the West Bank. Remarkably in the announcement of sanctions, the UK highlighted they take place "personally" only.

International Recognition and Actual Situation

If the British administration acknowledges the reality of settler violence 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 acknowledging Palestinian statehood as a sovereign entity, how can he permit the Israeli government to violate its independence with such violent means? Or was the recognition an empty tactic to silence opposition in the United Kingdom, a hollow gesture only to be implemented in the relabeling of some maps?

Route Toward Genuine Resolution

A just resolution must honor the basic entitlements of the Palestinian people for self-determination, sovereignty, and freedom from military occupation and siege. Only when each human being's dignity across the river and sea is respected can we genuinely say reconciliation has been achieved.

True peace requires an sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel: this is the sole solution that has agreement among the international community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace advocates.

Trump may have applied influence on Netanyahu to stop the violence, but he probably only did so because the strain of his connection with the pariah regime of the Israeli PM had become excessive. The mass protests throughout the globe for the liberation of Palestine, and the persistent anti-government demonstrations inside Israel, are the real forces behind this influence.

It is due to this enormous civil movement that a ceasefire has been signed, the captives freed, and the people of the territory can experience safeguard from destruction. After the ceasefire agreement has been finalized, it is vital to continue maintaining this influence. The world has ignored to the violence in Gaza for too long; it must not make the same error in the West Bank.