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Last week, during a joint address by American leader Donald Trump and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, colleague parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I raised a banner urging the recognition of the Palestinian state. We were violently removed from the legislative assembly, revealing the weak condition of what's frequently described as the "sole democratic state in the Middle East". How can officials talk about Middle East peace while refusing to recognize a people deprived of fundamental freedoms and rights under long-standing military control?

The Situation in the Occupied 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 terror continue strongly. More than 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, featuring physical assaults, stealing of crops, and torching of cars and belongings.

Systematic Violence During Harvest Season

The rise in settler terrorism is deliberate. This time signals the beginning of harvest seasons. Beyond a vital economic event, it represents an significant communal and national occasion that demonstrates endurance under military rule. Precisely for these causes, year after year settlers attack Palestinians during this precious time. During the last year's agricultural period, rights groups documented 113 distinct cases of violence, harassment, preventing harvesting, or destruction to olive groves and produce involving Israeli civilians and soldiers, which took place on lands belonging to 51 Palestinian communities, municipalities, and communities.

Israel's military seemed to have played a larger role in hindering the olive harvest

Yesh Din also found that "Israeli security forces seemed to have had a larger part in hindering the olive harvest". In approximately 70% of instances where entry to farmland was forcibly prevented, soldiers, border guards, and settlement security officials were actually present. They either personally stopped Palestinians from accessing and gathering their own lands, or failed to stop settlers who threatened or attacked them.

Government Support for Settler Activities

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 in charge of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. In one village, for example, a special military coordination team uprooted personally-owned olive plants of Palestinians, claiming lack of permits, but ignored violations by an unauthorized adjacent colonist encampment. Last week, the local court ruled to halt all building work in the outpost, which was constructed on property taken by Israel and illegally transferred to settlers.

Annexation Ambitions and Global Response

In the controlled West Bank, colonist violence is nothing but a tool used by the administration to pursue practical annexation. Earlier this month, Smotrich led a procession of many of settlers in favor of annexation the West Bank. He was quoted as stating, "We are continuing to take hold with our feet of the Land of Israel with many settlers, many heroes, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who reside in this part of the territory ... we need to normalise it and establish it permanently."

The colonists and their backers in the parliament are explicit about their intentions and goals. Why, then, do political leaders in the west hesitate from substantial sanctions and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was penalized by the UK in the summer, but the effect of the sanction has been limited. He may not be able to travel to the UK and visit the London's entertainment district, but he still enjoys the ministerial power to seize territories in the West Bank. Even in the announcement of penalties, the British government highlighted they take place "personally" only.

Global Acknowledgment and Reality

If the British administration recognizes the reality of colonist aggression and its grave implications on Palestinian existence, why does it still permit goods from settlements to be sold in markets and outlets in Britain? If the British leader is serious about acknowledging Palestinian statehood as a state, how can he permit the Israeli government to breach its independence with such aggressive methods? Or was the acknowledgment an empty ploy to silence opposition in the UK, a meaningless act only to be implemented in the relabeling of some cartographic representations?

Pathway to True Peace

A fair resolution must honor the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people for self-recognition, sovereignty, and freedom from occupation and siege. Only when every person's worth across the river and Mediterranean Sea is honored can we truly say reconciliation has been attained.

Genuine peace requires an independent Palestinian nation alongside Israel: this is the sole formula that enjoises consensus among the international community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace advocates.

The former US president may have inflicted influence on the Israeli leader to stop the genocide, but he probably only did so because the burden of his connection with the isolated government of the Israeli PM had become too great. The large demonstrations across the globe for the freedom of Palestine, and the unwavering anti-government demonstrations inside Israel, are the real forces behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this massive civil movement that a truce has been agreed, the hostages released, and the residents of Gaza can experience protection from destruction. After the ceasefire agreement has been signed, it is crucial to continue maintaining this influence. The international community has ignored to the violence in the strip for many years; it must not repeat the same error in the West Bank.