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Last Monday, during a joint speech by US President Donald Trump and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, colleague lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I raised a banner calling for the acknowledgment of the Palestinian state. We were forcibly removed from the parliamentary session, revealing the fragile state of what's frequently described as the "only democratic state in the Middle East". How can officials speak about Middle East peace while refusing to recognize a population denied of fundamental freedoms and entitlements under long-standing military control?

The Reality in the Occupied West Bank

In no place is the hypocrisy more apparent than in the controlled West Bank. There, words of reconciliation sound remote and faint, while the frightening echoes of settler violence and intimidation continue strongly. More than 30 occurrences of violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians have been recorded since the announcement of the Trump administration's peace proposal in late September, featuring physical assaults, theft of agricultural produce, and torching of vehicles and belongings.

Targeted Aggression During Harvest Season

The increase in settler terrorism is deliberate. This time signals the start of agricultural harvesting. More than a vital economic event, it constitutes an important communal and cultural moment that shows resilience under military rule. Exactly for these reasons, annually settlers target Palestinians during this crucial period. During the last year's agricultural season, human rights organizations documented 113 separate cases of violence, intimidation, harvest-thwarting, or destruction to olive trees and crops by Israeli civilians and soldiers, which took place on territories owned by 51 Palestinian villages, towns, and communities.

Israel's security forces appeared to have played a greater role in hindering the harvesting season

The human rights group also discovered that "Israel's security forces seemed to have had a larger role in obstructing the harvesting season". In approximately 70% of instances where access to lands was violently prevented, soldiers, border guards, and settler civilian security coordinators were physically on site. They either personally prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing and harvesting their own lands, or failed to stop colonists who harassed or attacked them.

Political Backing for Colonization

This comes as no surprise, as the leader of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed as an additional minister in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the territorial coordination unit. In one village, for example, a special COGAT unit uprooted private olive trees of local residents, claiming lack of permits, but overlooked infractions by an illegal adjacent colonist encampment. Last week, the Jerusalem district court ruled to halt all building work in the outpost, which was built on lands seized by Israeli authorities and illegally transferred to settlers.

Annexation Ambitions and International Reaction

In the controlled West Bank, colonist violence is nothing but a tool used by the government to achieve practical incorporation. Recently, Smotrich led a procession of thousands of colonists in favor of taking over the West Bank. He was reported as stating, "We are continuing to take hold with our presence of the territory with many settlers, many champions, and countless of settlers who live in this part of the territory ... we need to normalise it and establish it permanently."

The colonists and their backers in the Knesset are clear about their intentions and intentions. Why, then, do political leaders in the Western nations hesitate from meaningful sanctions and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in June, but the effect of the sanction has been minimal. He may not be able to travel to the United Kingdom and visit the London's entertainment district, but he still maintains the governmental authority to seize lands in the West Bank. Remarkably in the announcement of sanctions, the UK emphasized they take place "in his personal capacity" solely.

Global Acknowledgment and Actual Situation

If the UK government recognizes the reality of settler violence and its grave consequences on Palestinian existence, why does it still allow goods from settlements to be sold in stores and shops in Britain? If Starmer is serious about recognition of Palestine 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 ploy to silence dissenting voices in the UK, a meaningless gesture only to be realised in the relabeling of some cartographic representations?

Pathway to Genuine Peace

A just peace must respect the basic rights of the Palestinian people for self-determination, independence, and freedom from occupation and siege. Only when every person's worth across the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is honored can we genuinely say peace has been achieved.

True peace demands an sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel: this is the only solution that enjoises consensus among the international community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace camp.

The former US president may have applied pressure on Netanyahu to halt the violence, but he likely only did so because the strain of his relationship with the isolated government of the Israeli PM had become excessive. The large demonstrations across the globe for the liberation of Palestine, and the unwavering anti-government protests within Israel, are the real forces behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this enormous civil movement that a truce has been signed, the captives freed, and the residents of the territory can enjoy safeguard from annihilation. Following the ceasefire agreement has been finalized, it is crucial to keep applying this pressure. The international community has turned a blind eye to the atrocities in the strip for too long; it must not make the same error in the West Bank.