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Last Monday, during a joint speech by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, colleague lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I displayed a banner calling for the recognition of Palestine. We were forcibly ejected from the legislative assembly, exposing the weak state of what's frequently portrayed as the "only democratic state in the Middle East". How can officials speak about Middle East peace while refusing to acknowledge a people denied of basic liberties and rights under long-standing military control?

The Reality in the West Bank

In no place is the hypocrisy more evident than in the occupied West Bank. There, talk of reconciliation sound remote and weak, while the terrifying echoes of settler violence and intimidation continue strongly. More than 30 incidents of violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians have been documented since the unveiling of the Trump administration's peace proposal in late September, featuring physical assaults, stealing of agricultural produce, and burning of cars and belongings.

Systematic Aggression During Agricultural Period

The increase in violence by colonists is deliberate. This time signals the start of agricultural harvesting. More than a vital economic activity, it constitutes an important communal and cultural moment that shows endurance under military rule. Exactly for these causes, year after year colonists attack Palestinian farmers throughout this crucial time. During the last year's agricultural season, rights groups recorded 113 separate incidents of aggression, intimidation, harvest-thwarting, or damage to olive groves and crops involving Israeli civilians and soldiers, which occurred on lands owned by 51 Palestinian villages, towns, and areas.

Israel's military appeared to have played a larger role in obstructing the olive harvest

The human rights group also discovered that "Israel's security forces seemed to have had a greater role in obstructing the harvesting season". In about 70% of cases where entry to farmland was violently prevented, soldiers, border guards, and settlement security officials were actually on site. They either directly stopped Palestinian farmers from reaching and harvesting their property, or failed to stop settlers who threatened or assaulted them.

Political Support for Colonization

This comes as no shock, as the head of the settlers' political party, Bezalel Smotrich, was named as an additional minister in the Ministry of Defence responsible for the territorial coordination unit. In Umm al-Khair, for instance, a special COGAT unit removed personally-owned olive plants of local residents, citing lack of permits, but ignored infractions by an unauthorized nearby colonist encampment. Last week, the Jerusalem district court ruled to stop all construction in the encampment, which was constructed on property taken by Israel and illegally given to colonists.

Annexation Goals and International Reaction

In the occupied West Bank, colonist violence is nothing but a tool used by the administration to pursue practical annexation. Earlier this month, Smotrich led a march of many of settlers in support of annexation the West Bank. He was reported as stating, "We persist to take hold with our feet of the territory with many pioneers, many heroes, and countless of settlers who reside in this part of the land ... we need to normalise it and make it eternal."

The colonists and their supporters in the Knesset are explicit about their motives and intentions. Why, then, do government officials in the west refrain from meaningful sanctions and political actions? Smotrich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in the summer, but the impact of the penalty has been minimal. He may not be permitted to go to the United Kingdom and tour the London's entertainment district, but he still enjoys the ministerial power to seize lands in the West Bank. Even in the announcement of sanctions, the UK emphasized they apply "personally" solely.

Global Acknowledgment and Actual Situation

If the UK government recognizes the truth of colonist aggression and its grave consequences on Palestinian life, why does it still permit settlement produce to be sold in stores and shops in Britain? If Starmer is serious about recognition of Palestine as a state, how can he allow the Israeli administration to breach its independence with such violent means? Or was the recognition an hollow ploy to silence opposition in the UK, a hollow gesture only to be realised in the rebranding of some maps?

Pathway to Genuine Resolution

A just peace must respect the basic rights of the Palestinian people for self-recognition, independence, and freedom from military occupation and siege. Only when each person's dignity across the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is honored can we truly say reconciliation has been achieved.

True resolution requires an independent Palestinian nation next to Israel: this is the only solution that has consensus among the global community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace advocates.

The former US president may have inflicted pressure on the Israeli leader to stop the violence, but he likely only did so because the strain of his relationship with the isolated government of Netanyahu had become excessive. The mass protests throughout the globe for the liberation of Palestine, and the persistent opposition demonstrations inside the country, are the actual factors behind this influence.

It is thanks to this enormous public campaign that a ceasefire has been signed, the captives freed, and the residents of Gaza can experience safeguard from destruction. Following the ceasefire agreement has been finalized, it is crucial to continue applying this influence. The international community has turned a blind eye to the atrocities in Gaza for too long; it must not make the same mistake in the occupied territories.