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Last week, during a joint address by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, colleague lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I displayed a sign calling for the acknowledgment of the Palestinian state. We were violently ejected from the legislative assembly, exposing the fragile state of what's frequently portrayed as the "only democracy in the Middle East". How can officials speak about regional peace while refusing to acknowledge a population deprived of fundamental liberties and rights under decades-long military control?

The Reality in the Occupied West Bank

Nowhere is the hypocrisy more evident than in the controlled West Bank. There, words of reconciliation sound remote and weak, while the frightening echoes of colonist attacks and terror continue strongly. Over 30 incidents of settler aggression against Palestinian civilians have been recorded since the announcement of the Trump administration's peace proposal in September's end, including physical assaults, theft of agricultural produce, and torching of vehicles and belongings.

Systematic Violence During Agricultural Period

The increase in settler terrorism is not coincidental. This period signals the beginning of harvest seasons. More than a vital economic event, it constitutes an important communal and national occasion that demonstrates endurance under occupation. Precisely for these causes, annually colonists attack Palestinians throughout this crucial period. During the 2024 harvest season, rights groups recorded 113 distinct cases of violence, harassment, preventing harvesting, or damage to olive groves and produce by settlers and soldiers, which took place on lands owned by 51 Palestinian villages, towns, and communities.

Israeli security forces seemed to have had a greater role in obstructing the olive harvest

Yesh Din also discovered that "Israel's security forces seemed to have played a greater part in obstructing the harvesting season". In about 70% of instances where entry to lands was violently blocked, troops, border police officers, and settler security officials were physically on site. They either personally prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing and gathering their own lands, or neglected to prevent colonists who harassed or attacked them.

Political Backing for Colonization

This comes as no surprise, as the head of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was named as an extra official in the Defense Ministry in charge of 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 Palestinians, claiming missing documentation, but overlooked infractions by an illegal adjacent colonist encampment. Last week, the local court decided to stop all construction in the outpost, which was built on lands taken by Israel and illegally given to settlers.

Takeover Goals and Global Response

In the occupied West Bank, colonist violence is nothing but a tool used by the government to pursue practical annexation. Earlier this month, Smotrich led a march of many of colonists in favor of annexation the West Bank. He was quoted as saying, "We are continuing to establish presence with our presence of the territory with many settlers, many heroes, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who reside in this part of the land ... we need to normalize it and establish it permanently."

The settlers and their supporters in the parliament are clear about their intentions and intentions. Why, then, do political leaders in the west hesitate from substantial penalties and political actions? Smotrich was penalized by the United Kingdom in the summer, but the effect of the penalty has been limited. He may not be permitted to go to the United Kingdom and tour the London's entertainment district, but he still maintains the ministerial power to take lands in the West Bank. Remarkably in the announcement of penalties, the UK highlighted they take place "personally" solely.

International Recognition and Actual Situation

If the British administration acknowledges the reality of settler violence and its serious implications on Palestinian existence, why does it still permit settlement produce to be marketed in markets and shops in the UK? If Starmer is genuine about recognition of Palestine as a sovereign entity, how come he allow the Israeli government to violate its sovereignty with such violent means? Or was the acknowledgment an hollow tactic to silence opposition in the United Kingdom, a meaningless act only to be realised in the relabeling of some cartographic representations?

Route Toward True Resolution

A fair resolution must honor the fundamental rights of the Palestinian population for self-determination, sovereignty, and freedom from occupation and siege. Only when every human being's worth across the river and sea is respected can we truly declare reconciliation has been attained.

True resolution requires an sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel: this is the only solution that has agreement among the global community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace camp.

Trump may have applied pressure on the Israeli leader to stop the violence, but he probably only did so because the strain of his relationship with the pariah regime of the Israeli PM had become excessive. The large demonstrations throughout the globe for the liberation of Palestinian territories, and the persistent anti-government protests within the country, are the actual forces behind this influence.

It is thanks to this enormous civil movement that a truce has been signed, the captives freed, and the people of Gaza can experience safeguard from annihilation. Following the truce arrangement has been finalized, it is crucial to continue applying this influence. The world has ignored to the violence in Gaza for too long; it must not make the same mistake in the occupied territories.