🔗 Share this article

Last Monday, during a joint address by American leader Donald Trump and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, fellow lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I displayed a sign calling for the acknowledgment of Palestine. We were violently removed from the parliamentary session, exposing the fragile state of what's often portrayed as the "only democratic state in the region". How can leaders speak about regional peace while refusing to acknowledge a people deprived of basic freedoms and entitlements under decades-long occupation?

The Situation in the West Bank

Nowhere is the deceit more evident than in the controlled West Bank. There, words of reconciliation sound distant and weak, while the terrifying echoes of settler violence and intimidation persist loudly. More than 30 incidents of settler aggression against Palestinians have been documented since the announcement of the Trump administration's 20-point plan in late September, featuring attacks, stealing of crops, and torching of cars and property.

Targeted Violence During Harvest Season

The rise in settler terrorism is not coincidental. This time marks the start of harvest seasons. Beyond a vital economic activity, it constitutes an significant social and cultural occasion that shows resilience under occupation. Exactly for these causes, year after year colonists attack Palestinian farmers during this crucial period. During the last year's agricultural period, human rights organizations documented 113 distinct incidents of aggression, harassment, harvest-thwarting, or damage to olive groves and produce by Israeli civilians and military personnel, which took place on territories owned by 51 Palestinian communities, towns, and communities.

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

The human rights group also discovered that "Israeli security forces seemed to have had a greater part in hindering the olive harvest". In approximately 70% of cases where access to lands was forcibly blocked, soldiers, border police officers, and settler security officials were actually present. They either personally prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing and gathering their own lands, or neglected to prevent settlers who harassed or assaulted them.

Government Support for Colonization

This comes as no shock, as the head of the settlers' political party, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed as an extra minister in the Defense Ministry in charge of the territorial coordination unit. In one village, for example, a particular COGAT unit uprooted private olive plants of local residents, citing missing documentation, but ignored infractions by an illegal adjacent settler outpost. Last week, the Jerusalem district court ruled to halt all building work in the outpost, which was constructed on lands taken by Israeli authorities and unlawfully given to settlers.

Annexation Goals and International Response

In the occupied West Bank, settler terrorism is nothing but a tool used by the administration to achieve de-facto annexation. Earlier this month, Smotrich headed a march of thousands of colonists in favor of annexation the West Bank. He was quoted as stating, "We persist to take hold with our feet of the Land of Israel with numerous settlers, many heroes, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who reside in this area of the territory ... we need to normalize it and make it eternal."

The settlers and their backers in the Knesset are clear about their intentions and intentions. Why, then, do government officials in the Western nations refrain from meaningful penalties and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was penalized by the United Kingdom in the summer, but the impact of the sanction 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 ministerial power to seize territories in the West Bank. Even in the announcement of penalties, the UK highlighted they apply "in his personal capacity" solely.

Global Recognition and Actual Situation

If the British administration acknowledges the truth of colonist aggression and its grave consequences on Palestinian life, why does it still permit goods from settlements to be sold in markets and outlets in the UK? If Starmer is genuine about acknowledging Palestinian statehood as a sovereign entity, how can he permit the Israeli administration to breach its independence with such aggressive methods? Or was the acknowledgment an hollow ploy to shut down dissenting voices in the UK, a meaningless act only to be realised in the rebranding of some maps?

Route Toward True Peace

A just peace must honor the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people for self-recognition, sovereignty, and freedom from military occupation and blockade. Only when each human being's worth between the Jordan River and sea is respected can we truly declare peace has been achieved.

Genuine resolution requires an sovereign Palestinian state alongside the Israeli state: this is the sole formula that enjoises agreement among the global community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace camp.

Trump may have applied influence on Netanyahu to halt the genocide, but he probably only did so because the burden of his connection with the isolated government of Netanyahu had become too great. The large demonstrations across the world for the freedom of Palestine, and the persistent opposition protests within the country, are the real forces behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this massive public campaign that a ceasefire has been agreed, the hostages freed, and the residents of the territory can enjoy safeguard from annihilation. Following the truce arrangement has been signed, it is crucial to keep applying this influence. The international community has turned a blind eye to the atrocities in Gaza for many years; it must not repeat the same mistake in the West Bank.