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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, fellow parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I displayed a banner urging the acknowledgment of the Palestinian state. We were violently ejected from the legislative session, revealing the fragile state of what's often portrayed as the "sole democracy in the region". How can leaders talk about regional peace while declining to recognize a population denied of fundamental freedoms and rights under decades-long occupation?

The Situation in the Occupied West Bank

In no place is the hypocrisy more apparent than in the occupied West Bank. There, words of peace seem distant and weak, while the frightening sounds of colonist attacks and terror continue strongly. More than 30 occurrences of settler aggression against Palestinian civilians have been recorded since the announcement of the Trump administration's 20-point plan in September's end, including physical assaults, stealing of crops, and burning of cars and belongings.

Systematic Aggression During Agricultural Period

The rise in violence by colonists is not coincidental. This time marks the beginning of harvest seasons. More than a crucial economic event, it constitutes an important social and cultural moment that shows resilience under military rule. Exactly for these reasons, year after year settlers target Palestinians throughout this precious time. During the last year's agricultural season, rights groups recorded 113 distinct incidents of aggression, harassment, preventing harvesting, or damage to olive groves and crops by Israeli civilians and military personnel, which took place on territories belonging to 51 Palestinian-owned villages, municipalities, and communities.

Israel's military seemed to have played a larger role in obstructing the harvesting season

Yesh Din also discovered that "Israel's military appeared to have played a greater part in hindering the olive harvest". In about 70% of cases where access to lands was forcibly prevented, troops, border guards, and settlement civilian security coordinators were actually on site. They either directly prevented Palestinians from accessing and harvesting their property, or failed to stop colonists who threatened or assaulted them.

Government Backing for Colonization

This is no shock, as the leader of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was named as an additional minister in the Ministry of Defence responsible for the territorial coordination unit. In one village, for instance, a special military coordination team uprooted personally-owned olive trees of local residents, citing missing documentation, but overlooked violations by an illegal adjacent settler outpost. Last week, the Jerusalem district court decided to stop all building work in the encampment, which was built on property seized by Israel and illegally transferred to settlers.

Annexation Goals and International Reaction

In the occupied West Bank, colonist violence is nothing but a tool used by the government to pursue practical annexation. Recently, Smotrich led a procession of thousands of colonists in favor of annexation 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 hundreds of thousands of colonists who reside in this area of the land ... we must to normalize it and establish it permanently."

The colonists and their backers in the Knesset are clear about their intentions and goals. Why, then, do political leaders in the Western nations hesitate from meaningful penalties and political actions? Smotrich was sanctioned by the UK in June, but the impact of the penalty has been minimal. He may not be permitted to go to the UK and visit the West End, but he still maintains the governmental authority to take lands in the West Bank. Remarkably in the announcement of penalties, the British government emphasized they apply "personally" solely.

International Acknowledgment and Reality

If the British administration acknowledges the truth of settler violence and its grave implications on Palestinian life, why does it still allow goods from settlements to be marketed in stores and shops in the UK? If Starmer is serious about recognition of Palestine as a sovereign entity, how can he permit the Israeli administration to violate its independence with such aggressive methods? Or was the recognition an empty tactic to shut down opposition in the UK, a hollow act only to be implemented in the rebranding of some maps?

Pathway to True Peace

A just peace must respect the fundamental rights of the Palestinian population for self-recognition, sovereignty, and freedom from military occupation and siege. Only when every human being's dignity between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is honored can we genuinely declare reconciliation has been achieved.

Genuine resolution demands an independent Palestinian nation alongside the Israeli state: this is the only solution that has agreement among the international community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace camp.

The former US president may have inflicted 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 mass protests across the world for the liberation of Palestinian territories, and the unwavering opposition demonstrations inside the country, are the real forces behind this pressure.

It is due to this massive public campaign that a truce has been signed, the captives freed, and the residents of the territory can enjoy safeguard from annihilation. After the truce arrangement has been signed, it is vital to keep maintaining this pressure. The international community has ignored to the violence in the strip for too long; it must not make the same error in the occupied territories.