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Last week, during a joint address by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, fellow lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I displayed a banner urging the recognition of Palestine. We were forcibly removed from the legislative session, revealing the fragile condition of what's frequently portrayed as the "only democratic state in the Middle East". How can officials talk about regional peace while declining to acknowledge a population denied of basic liberties and rights under long-standing military control?

The Reality in the West Bank

In no place is the hypocrisy more apparent than in the occupied West Bank. There, talk of peace sound remote and weak, while the terrifying sounds of settler violence and intimidation continue strongly. More than 30 incidents of violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians have been recorded since the announcement of the US 20-point plan in late September, including physical assaults, theft of crops, and burning of cars and belongings.

Systematic Violence During Agricultural Period

The rise in settler terrorism is deliberate. This time marks the beginning of harvest seasons. Beyond a crucial economic event, it represents an important communal and cultural occasion that shows resilience under occupation. Exactly for these reasons, annually settlers target Palestinian farmers during this precious time. During the last year's agricultural season, rights groups documented 113 separate cases of violence, intimidation, harvest-thwarting, or destruction to olive trees and crops involving Israeli civilians and military personnel, which took place on lands belonging to 51 Palestinian communities, towns, and communities.

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

Yesh Din also found that "Israeli military appeared to have played a larger part in obstructing the olive harvest". In about 70% of cases where access to farmland was forcibly blocked, troops, border police officers, and settler security officials were physically on site. They either directly stopped Palestinian farmers from reaching and gathering their own lands, or failed to stop settlers who harassed or assaulted them.

Government Backing for Settler Activities

This is no shock, as the head of the settlers' political party, Bezalel Smotrich, was named as an extra official in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. In Umm al-Khair, for instance, a special military coordination team uprooted personally-owned olive plants of Palestinians, claiming lack of permits, but overlooked infractions by an unauthorized adjacent settler outpost. Last week, the Jerusalem district court decided to stop all building work in the outpost, which was built on property taken by Israeli authorities and illegally transferred to settlers.

Annexation Ambitions and International Response

In the controlled West Bank, settler terrorism is simply a tool used by the government to pursue de-facto incorporation. Recently, Smotrich led a procession of many of colonists in favor of annexation the West Bank. He was reported as stating, "We persist to take hold with our feet of the territory with numerous settlers, numerous heroes, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who live in this part of the land ... we must to normalize it and make it eternal."

The colonists and their backers in the Knesset are clear about their intentions and goals. Why, then, do political leaders in the west refrain from meaningful sanctions and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was sanctioned by the UK in the summer, but the impact of the penalty has been limited. He may not be permitted to travel to the UK and tour the West End, but he still enjoys the ministerial power to seize territories in the West Bank. Even in the announcement of sanctions, the UK emphasized they take place "in his personal capacity" only.

International Recognition and Reality

If the UK government recognizes the truth of colonist aggression and its grave consequences on Palestinian existence, why does it still allow goods from settlements to be sold in stores and outlets in the UK? If Starmer is serious about recognition of Palestine as a state, how can he permit the Israeli government to breach its sovereignty with such aggressive methods? Or was the recognition an empty ploy to silence dissenting voices in the UK, a hollow act only to be realised in the rebranding of some maps?

Route Toward True Peace

A just peace must respect the fundamental entitlements of the Palestinian people for self-determination, independence, and liberty from occupation and blockade. Only when each human being's dignity between the Jordan River and sea is respected can we truly say peace has been achieved.

True peace requires an independent Palestinian nation next to the Israeli state: this is the sole formula that enjoises consensus among the global community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace advocates.

Trump may have inflicted pressure on the Israeli leader to halt the genocide, but he likely only did so because the burden of his connection with the pariah regime of the Israeli PM had become excessive. The mass protests throughout the world for the freedom of Palestine, and the unwavering anti-government demonstrations within Israel, are the real forces behind this influence.

It is due to this enormous civil movement that a ceasefire has been agreed, the captives freed, and the residents of the territory can enjoy safeguard from destruction. After the truce arrangement has been signed, it is vital to continue maintaining this pressure. The world has ignored to the atrocities in the strip for many years; it must not make the same mistake in the occupied territories.