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Last Monday, during a combined address by American leader Donald Trump and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, colleague parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I displayed a banner urging the acknowledgment of Palestine. We were violently removed from the parliamentary assembly, revealing the fragile condition of what's frequently described as the "only democratic state in the Middle East". How can leaders speak about Middle East peace while refusing to recognize a people deprived of fundamental freedoms and entitlements under decades-long occupation?

The Reality in the Occupied West Bank

In no place is the hypocrisy more evident than in the occupied West Bank. There, words of peace sound remote and weak, while the terrifying echoes of settler violence and terror continue strongly. More than 30 occurrences of settler aggression against Palestinians have been documented since the announcement of the US peace proposal in late September, featuring attacks, stealing of crops, and burning of vehicles and property.

Systematic Aggression During Harvest Season

The rise in settler terrorism is not coincidental. This period signals the start of harvest seasons. Beyond a crucial economic activity, it represents an significant social and cultural occasion that demonstrates resilience under occupation. Precisely for these reasons, annually settlers attack Palestinian farmers throughout this precious period. During the 2024 harvest period, human rights organizations recorded 113 distinct incidents of violence, harassment, preventing harvesting, or destruction to olive groves and crops involving Israeli civilians and soldiers, which occurred on territories owned by 51 Palestinian villages, towns, and areas.

Israel's military appeared to have had a greater role in hindering the harvesting season

Yesh Din also found that "Israel's security forces appeared to have played a larger role in obstructing the harvesting season". In approximately 70% of cases where access to farmland was forcibly prevented, troops, border guards, and settler security officials were actually on site. They either personally stopped Palestinian farmers from accessing and gathering their property, or failed to prevent settlers who harassed or assaulted them.

Political Backing for Colonization

This comes as no surprise, as the leader of the settlers' political party, Bezalel Smotrich, was named as an extra official in the Ministry of Defence responsible for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. In Umm al-Khair, for example, a special military coordination team uprooted personally-owned olive trees of local residents, citing lack of permits, but overlooked violations by an illegal adjacent colonist encampment. Last week, the local court ruled to halt all building work in the outpost, which was constructed on lands seized by Israeli authorities and unlawfully transferred to colonists.

Annexation Ambitions and Global Response

In the occupied West Bank, colonist violence is nothing but a tool used by the administration to achieve de-facto annexation. Recently, Smotrich led a march of thousands of colonists in favor of annexation the West Bank. He was reported as saying, "We persist to take hold with our presence of the territory with many settlers, numerous champions, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who reside in this area of the territory ... we need to normalise it and establish it permanently."

The colonists and their backers in the parliament are clear about their intentions and goals. Why, then, do political leaders in the west hesitate from meaningful penalties and political actions? Smotrich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in June, but the effect of the sanction has been minimal. He may not be able to go to the United Kingdom and tour the West End, but he still enjoys the governmental authority to take lands in the West Bank. Even in the announcement of sanctions, the UK highlighted they apply "personally" only.

Global Acknowledgment and Actual Situation

If the British administration acknowledges the truth of settler violence and its grave consequences on Palestinian life, why does it still allow goods from settlements to be marketed in markets and shops in Britain? If Starmer is serious about acknowledging Palestinian statehood as a sovereign entity, how come he permit the Israeli administration to breach its independence with such violent means? Or was the acknowledgment an empty ploy to shut down opposition in the UK, a hollow act only to be implemented in the relabeling of some cartographic representations?

Route Toward Genuine Peace

A fair resolution must respect the fundamental rights of the Palestinian population for self-determination, sovereignty, and liberty from military occupation and blockade. Only when every human being's dignity between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is honored can we truly declare reconciliation has been achieved.

True peace requires an independent Palestinian nation alongside Israel: this is the only formula that has consensus among the international community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace camp.

Trump may have applied influence on Netanyahu to stop the violence, but he probably only did so because the burden of his relationship with the pariah regime of the Israeli PM had become too great. The large demonstrations throughout the world for the liberation of Palestinian territories, and the persistent opposition protests inside the country, are the actual forces behind this influence.

It is due to this enormous civil movement that a truce has been agreed, the captives freed, and the people of Gaza can enjoy safeguard from annihilation. Following the truce arrangement has been signed, it is vital to continue maintaining this influence. The world has turned a blind eye to the atrocities in Gaza for many years; it must not make the same error in the occupied territories.