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Last week, during a joint speech by American leader Donald Trump and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, colleague parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I displayed a banner urging the recognition of the Palestinian state. We were violently removed from the parliamentary session, revealing the fragile condition of what's frequently portrayed as the "sole democracy in the Middle East". How can leaders speak about regional peace while declining to recognize a population denied of basic freedoms and rights under decades-long occupation?

The Reality in the West Bank

Nowhere is the deceit more apparent than in the controlled West Bank. There, words of reconciliation sound distant and faint, while the frightening sounds of colonist attacks and intimidation persist loudly. Over 30 incidents of violence by settlers against Palestinians have been documented since the unveiling of the Trump administration's 20-point plan in September's end, featuring attacks, stealing of crops, and burning of cars and belongings.

Systematic Aggression During Harvest Season

The rise in violence by colonists is deliberate. This period signals the start of agricultural harvesting. Beyond a crucial economic activity, it constitutes an significant communal and national occasion that shows resilience under occupation. Exactly for these reasons, annually settlers target Palestinians during this precious period. During the last year's agricultural season, human rights organizations documented 113 separate incidents of violence, intimidation, harvest-thwarting, or destruction to olive groves and produce by settlers and military personnel, which occurred on lands owned by 51 Palestinian-owned communities, municipalities, and areas.

Israeli security forces appeared to have had a larger role in obstructing the olive harvest

The human rights group also found that "Israeli security forces appeared to have played a greater part in obstructing the harvesting season". In approximately 70% of cases where access to lands was forcibly blocked, troops, border police officers, and settler security officials were physically present. They either personally prevented Palestinians from reaching and harvesting their property, or failed to prevent colonists who threatened or attacked them.

Government Backing for Settler Activities

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 responsible for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. In Umm al-Khair, for example, a special military coordination team uprooted private olive plants of local residents, claiming missing documentation, but overlooked infractions by an illegal nearby settler outpost. Last week, the Jerusalem district court decided to stop all building work in the encampment, which was built on lands seized by Israeli authorities and unlawfully given to settlers.

Annexation Goals and Global Response

In the occupied West Bank, settler terrorism is simply a tool used by the government to pursue de-facto incorporation. Earlier this month, Smotrich led a procession of thousands of colonists in support of annexation the West Bank. He was reported as saying, "We are continuing to take hold with our feet of the Land of Israel with many pioneers, numerous heroes, and hundreds of thousands of colonists who live in this part of the land ... we need to normalize it and establish it permanently."

The settlers and their supporters in the parliament are explicit about their intentions and intentions. Why, then, do government officials in the west refrain from meaningful sanctions and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was sanctioned by the UK in the summer, but the impact of the sanction has been minimal. He may not be permitted to travel to the United Kingdom and visit the West End, but he still enjoys the ministerial power to seize territories in the West Bank. Even in the announcement of penalties, the UK emphasized they apply "personally" only.

Global Recognition and Actual Situation

If the British administration acknowledges the truth of settler violence and its serious implications on Palestinian life, why does it still allow goods from settlements to be sold in markets and outlets in Britain? If Starmer is serious about recognition of Palestine as a state, how can he permit the Israeli government to violate its sovereignty with such aggressive methods? Or was the recognition an empty tactic to shut down dissenting voices in the UK, a meaningless gesture only to be realised in the rebranding of some maps?

Route Toward Genuine Resolution

A fair resolution must honor the fundamental entitlements of the Palestinian population for self-determination, independence, and freedom from occupation and siege. Only when every person's worth across the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is respected can we truly declare reconciliation has been achieved.

True peace requires an independent Palestinian nation alongside the Israeli state: this is the only solution that enjoises consensus among the international community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace advocates.

Trump may have applied pressure on Netanyahu to stop the genocide, but he probably only did so because the strain of his relationship with the pariah regime of Netanyahu had become too great. The mass protests throughout the world for the liberation of Palestinian territories, and the persistent opposition protests within Israel, are the real factors behind this pressure.

It is due to this enormous civil movement that a ceasefire has been agreed, the hostages freed, and the residents of Gaza can experience protection from annihilation. After the ceasefire agreement has been finalized, it is crucial to keep applying this pressure. The international community has turned a blind eye to the violence in the strip for many years; it must not repeat the same error in the occupied territories.