🔗 Share this article

Last week, during a combined speech by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, fellow parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I raised a banner urging the recognition of the Palestinian state. We were violently removed from the legislative session, exposing the fragile state of what's frequently portrayed as the "sole democratic state in the region". How can officials talk about Middle East peace while refusing to acknowledge a people denied of fundamental liberties and rights under decades-long military control?

The Situation in the Occupied West Bank

In no place is the deceit more evident than in the controlled West Bank. There, words of reconciliation sound remote and faint, while the terrifying sounds of colonist attacks and intimidation persist strongly. More than 30 incidents of violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians have been recorded since the unveiling of the US peace proposal in late September, including attacks, theft of crops, and torching of vehicles and property.

Systematic Violence During Harvest Season

The rise in violence by colonists is not coincidental. This time signals the start of agricultural harvesting. Beyond a vital economic event, it represents an important social and cultural moment that shows endurance under occupation. Exactly for these reasons, year after year colonists attack Palestinian farmers during this precious time. During the last year's agricultural season, human rights organizations documented 113 distinct cases of violence, intimidation, preventing harvesting, or destruction to olive groves and crops involving Israeli civilians and soldiers, which occurred on territories owned by 51 Palestinian-owned communities, municipalities, and communities.

Israel's military appeared to have had a larger role in obstructing the harvesting season

Yesh Din also found that "Israel's security forces appeared to have played a greater part in obstructing the harvesting season". In approximately 70% of cases where access to lands was violently prevented, soldiers, border police officers, and settlement security officials were actually on site. They either directly prevented Palestinians from accessing and harvesting their own lands, or failed to stop settlers who harassed or attacked them.

Government Support for Colonization

This is no shock, as the leader of the settlers' political party, Bezalel Smotrich, was named as an extra minister in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the territorial coordination unit. In Umm al-Khair, for example, a special military coordination team uprooted private olive trees of local residents, citing missing documentation, but ignored infractions by an illegal adjacent colonist encampment. Last week, the local court ruled to stop all construction in the outpost, which was built on property taken by Israeli authorities and illegally given to colonists.

Annexation Ambitions and International Response

In the controlled West Bank, colonist violence is nothing but a tool used by the government to achieve practical annexation. Earlier this month, Smotrich led a procession of many of settlers in favor of taking over the West Bank. He was reported as stating, "We persist to establish presence with our feet of the territory with numerous pioneers, many heroes, and countless of colonists who live in this area of the territory ... we must to normalise it and make it eternal."

The colonists and their backers in the Knesset are clear about their intentions and intentions. Why, then, do political leaders in the Western nations refrain from substantial penalties and political actions? Smotrich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in June, but the effect of the penalty has been minimal. He may not be able to travel to the UK and visit the West End, but he still maintains the ministerial power to seize lands in the West Bank. Even in the announcement of penalties, the British government highlighted they apply "personally" solely.

Global Recognition and Reality

If the UK government recognizes 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 Britain? If the British leader is serious about recognition of Palestine as a sovereign entity, how come he permit the Israeli administration to breach its sovereignty with such violent means? Or was the acknowledgment an hollow ploy to shut down dissenting voices in the United Kingdom, a meaningless act only to be implemented in the relabeling of some maps?

Route Toward Genuine Resolution

A just resolution must respect the basic entitlements of the Palestinian population for self-recognition, sovereignty, and liberty from military occupation and blockade. Only when every person's worth across the Jordan River and sea is respected can we truly declare reconciliation has been attained.

Genuine resolution demands an independent Palestinian state next to the Israeli state: this is the sole solution that enjoises agreement among the global community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace advocates.

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

It is thanks to this enormous civil movement that a ceasefire has been agreed, the captives freed, and the people of the territory can experience safeguard from destruction. Following the truce arrangement has been signed, it is crucial to keep maintaining this pressure. The international community has ignored to the violence in Gaza for many years; it must not make the same mistake in the occupied territories.