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Last week, during a combined speech by US President Donald Trump and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, colleague parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I raised a sign calling for the acknowledgment of Palestine. We were violently ejected from the legislative assembly, exposing the weak condition of what's often described as the "only democratic state in the region". How can leaders speak about regional peace while declining to recognize a population deprived of fundamental liberties and entitlements under long-standing occupation?

The Reality in the Occupied West Bank

Nowhere is the hypocrisy more evident than in the occupied West Bank. There, words of peace seem distant and faint, while the frightening echoes of settler violence and terror persist strongly. Over 30 incidents of violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians have been documented since the announcement of the Trump administration's peace proposal in September's end, including attacks, theft of crops, and torching of vehicles and belongings.

Targeted Violence During Harvest Season

The increase in violence by colonists is not coincidental. This time signals the beginning of agricultural harvesting. More than a vital economic event, it constitutes an important communal and cultural moment that demonstrates resilience under occupation. Precisely for these causes, year after year settlers target Palestinians throughout this precious period. During the 2024 harvest season, rights groups recorded 113 distinct incidents of aggression, harassment, preventing harvesting, or damage to olive trees and crops by settlers and soldiers, which occurred on territories owned by 51 Palestinian-owned communities, municipalities, and areas.

Israeli military seemed to have had a larger part in obstructing the olive harvest

The human rights group also found that "Israel's security forces appeared to have played a greater role in obstructing the olive harvest". In about 70% of cases where entry to lands was violently prevented, soldiers, border guards, and settlement security officials were actually present. They either personally prevented Palestinians from accessing and harvesting their own lands, or failed to stop colonists who threatened or assaulted them.

Government Backing for Colonization

This is no shock, as the head of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was named as an additional official in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. In Umm al-Khair, for example, a special military coordination team removed personally-owned olive trees of Palestinians, citing missing documentation, but overlooked violations by an illegal nearby settler outpost. Last week, the Jerusalem district court decided to halt all construction in the outpost, which was built on lands seized by Israeli authorities and unlawfully given to colonists.

Annexation Ambitions and International Response

In the controlled West Bank, colonist violence is nothing but a instrument used by the administration to achieve de-facto annexation. Recently, Smotrich headed a march of many of colonists in favor of taking over the West Bank. He was reported as saying, "We are continuing to take hold with our presence of the Land of Israel with many pioneers, numerous champions, and countless of settlers who reside in this area of the land ... we must to normalise it and make it eternal."

The colonists and their supporters in the Knesset are explicit about their motives and goals. Why, then, do government officials in the west hesitate from meaningful sanctions and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in the summer, but the effect of the penalty has been minimal. He may not be able to go to the United Kingdom and visit the West End, but he still enjoys the governmental authority to take territories in the West Bank. Even in the declaration of penalties, the British government highlighted they apply "in his personal capacity" only.

Global Acknowledgment and Reality

If the British administration acknowledges the truth of colonist aggression and its grave consequences on Palestinian life, why does it still permit settlement produce to be sold in stores and shops in the UK? If Starmer is serious about acknowledging Palestinian statehood as a state, how can he permit the Israeli administration to violate its sovereignty with such aggressive methods? Or was the recognition an hollow tactic to shut down dissenting voices in the UK, a hollow gesture only to be implemented in the rebranding of some maps?

Pathway to Genuine Peace

A just resolution must respect the basic rights of the Palestinian population for self-recognition, sovereignty, and liberty from military occupation and blockade. Only when every human being's worth between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is respected can we genuinely say reconciliation has been achieved.

Genuine peace demands an independent Palestinian state next to the Israeli state: this is the only formula that has consensus among the international community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace camp.

The former US president may have inflicted influence on Netanyahu to halt the violence, but he likely only did so because the burden of his connection with the isolated government of the Israeli PM had become excessive. The large demonstrations across the world for the freedom of Palestine, and the persistent anti-government protests within the country, are the real forces behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this massive civil movement that a ceasefire has been agreed, the hostages released, and the people of Gaza can experience safeguard from annihilation. After the truce arrangement has been finalized, it is crucial to continue maintaining this influence. The international community has turned a blind eye to the atrocities in the strip for many years; it must not repeat the same mistake in the West Bank.