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Last Monday, amid a joint speech by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, colleague parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I raised a banner urging the acknowledgment of Palestine. We were forcibly removed from the parliamentary assembly, revealing the fragile state of what's often described as the "sole democracy in the region". How can leaders speak about Middle East peace while declining to recognize a people deprived of basic freedoms and rights under decades-long occupation?

The Reality in the Occupied West Bank

Nowhere is the deceit more apparent than in the occupied West Bank. There, talk of peace sound distant and weak, while the frightening sounds of settler violence and intimidation continue loudly. More than 30 occurrences of settler aggression against Palestinians have been recorded since the unveiling of the Trump administration's peace proposal in late September, including physical assaults, theft of crops, and burning of cars and property.

Systematic Aggression During Harvest Season

The increase in violence by colonists is deliberate. This time marks the beginning of harvest seasons. Beyond a vital economic event, it constitutes an important social and national moment that demonstrates resilience under occupation. Exactly for these causes, annually colonists attack Palestinians during this precious time. During the last year's agricultural season, human rights organizations recorded 113 distinct cases of violence, harassment, harvest-thwarting, or destruction to olive trees and produce involving Israeli civilians and soldiers, which took place on territories belonging to 51 Palestinian-owned communities, municipalities, and areas.

Israeli security forces seemed to have had a greater role in obstructing the harvesting season

Yesh Din also discovered that "Israel's security forces appeared to have played a larger part in hindering the olive harvest". In about 70% of instances where entry to farmland was violently blocked, soldiers, border police officers, and settler security officials were actually present. They either personally prevented Palestinians from reaching and harvesting their property, or neglected to prevent colonists who threatened or assaulted them.

Government Support for Colonization

This comes as no surprise, as the head of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed as an additional official in the Ministry of Defence responsible for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. In one village, for example, a special military coordination team removed personally-owned olive trees of local residents, claiming lack of permits, but ignored violations by an unauthorized adjacent colonist encampment. Last week, the local court decided to stop all construction in the outpost, which was built on lands seized by Israeli authorities and unlawfully given to settlers.

Annexation Ambitions and Global Response

In the occupied West Bank, colonist violence is simply a tool used by the administration to pursue de-facto 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 Land of Israel with numerous pioneers, numerous champions, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who reside in this area of the land ... we must to normalize it and make it eternal."

The settlers and their supporters in the Knesset are clear about their motives and goals. Why, then, do government officials in the Western nations refrain from meaningful penalties and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in the summer, but the effect of the penalty has been minimal. He may not be permitted to go to the UK and tour the London's entertainment district, but he still enjoys the governmental authority to take lands in the West Bank. Even in the declaration of penalties, the British government emphasized they take place "personally" solely.

Global Acknowledgment and Actual Situation

If the UK government recognizes the reality of colonist aggression and its serious implications on Palestinian life, why does it still allow goods from settlements to be marketed in stores and shops in Britain? If the British leader is serious about acknowledging Palestinian statehood as a state, how come he allow the Israeli administration to violate its sovereignty with such aggressive methods? Or was the acknowledgment an hollow tactic to silence opposition in the United Kingdom, a meaningless gesture only to be realised in the rebranding of some cartographic representations?

Pathway to True Peace

A fair resolution must honor the basic rights of the Palestinian population for self-recognition, sovereignty, and freedom from occupation and siege. Only when every person's dignity across the river and Mediterranean Sea is honored can we genuinely say peace has been attained.

Genuine peace requires an independent Palestinian state alongside the Israeli state: this is the only formula that enjoises consensus among the international community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace advocates.

The former US president may have inflicted pressure on the Israeli leader to halt the violence, but he probably only did so because the strain of his connection with the isolated government of Netanyahu had become too great. The large demonstrations throughout the world for the liberation of Palestine, and the persistent anti-government demonstrations inside Israel, are the actual forces behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this massive civil movement that a truce has been signed, the captives released, and the people of the territory can experience safeguard from annihilation. After the ceasefire agreement has been signed, it is vital to continue applying this influence. The world has turned a blind eye to the violence in the strip for too long; it must not make the same mistake in the West Bank.