🔗 Share this article

Last Monday, amid a combined address by US President Donald Trump and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, fellow parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I raised a sign urging the recognition of the Palestinian state. We were violently removed from the legislative session, exposing the fragile condition of what's often described as the "sole democratic state in the Middle East". How can leaders talk about Middle East peace while declining to recognize a population deprived of fundamental liberties and rights under decades-long military control?

The Situation 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 terrifying echoes of colonist attacks and terror continue strongly. Over 30 incidents of settler aggression against Palestinian civilians have been recorded since the unveiling of the US peace proposal in September's end, including attacks, theft of crops, and torching of cars and belongings.

Targeted Violence During Agricultural Period

The increase in settler terrorism is not coincidental. This time signals the start of agricultural harvesting. Beyond a crucial economic event, it constitutes an significant communal and national occasion that shows resilience under occupation. Precisely for these reasons, annually colonists attack Palestinians throughout this crucial time. During the last year's agricultural season, human rights organizations recorded 113 distinct cases of aggression, intimidation, preventing harvesting, or destruction to olive trees and crops involving Israeli civilians and military personnel, which occurred on lands owned by 51 Palestinian villages, municipalities, and communities.

Israel's military appeared to have played a larger part in obstructing the harvesting season

The human rights group also found that "Israel's military seemed to have had a greater part in hindering the olive harvest". In approximately 70% of cases where entry to farmland was forcibly blocked, troops, border police officers, and settler security officials were actually on site. They either directly prevented Palestinians from accessing and gathering their own lands, or failed to stop colonists who threatened or assaulted them.

Government Support for Colonization

This is 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 Umm al-Khair, for example, a special military coordination team removed personally-owned olive plants of local residents, claiming missing documentation, but overlooked infractions by an unauthorized nearby colonist encampment. Last week, the local court ruled to halt all building work in the encampment, which was built on property taken by Israel and unlawfully transferred to colonists.

Annexation Ambitions and Global Reaction

In the controlled West Bank, colonist violence is simply a tool used by the government to pursue practical annexation. Recently, Smotrich led a march of thousands of colonists in support of annexation the West Bank. He was reported as saying, "We persist to take hold with our presence of the territory with many pioneers, many champions, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who reside in this area of the territory ... we must to normalise it and establish it permanently."

The colonists and their supporters in the Knesset are explicit about their intentions and intentions. Why, then, do government officials in the west refrain from substantial sanctions and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was penalized by the United Kingdom in June, but the impact of the sanction has been limited. He may not be able to travel to the United Kingdom and tour the West End, but he still enjoys the governmental authority to take territories in the West Bank. Remarkably in the announcement of penalties, the British government emphasized they take place "personally" only.

Global Recognition and Actual Situation

If the British administration recognizes the reality of colonist aggression and its grave consequences on Palestinian existence, why does it still permit goods from settlements to be marketed in markets and shops in the UK? If Starmer is serious 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 tactic to shut down opposition in the United Kingdom, a meaningless act only to be implemented in the rebranding of some maps?

Route Toward Genuine Peace

A just peace must respect the fundamental rights of the Palestinian population for self-determination, independence, and liberty from occupation and blockade. Only when every person's dignity across the river and Mediterranean Sea is respected can we genuinely say peace has been attained.

Genuine peace requires an sovereign Palestinian nation next to Israel: this is the only solution that enjoises agreement among the international community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace camp.

The former US president may have inflicted influence on Netanyahu to halt the genocide, but he probably only did so because the burden of his relationship with the isolated government of the Israeli PM had become too great. The mass protests throughout the globe for the freedom of Palestinian territories, and the persistent anti-government demonstrations within the country, are the real forces behind this influence.

It is thanks to this enormous civil movement that a ceasefire has been signed, the hostages released, and the residents of Gaza can enjoy safeguard from destruction. After the truce arrangement has been finalized, it is crucial to continue maintaining this pressure. The world has ignored to the atrocities in the strip for too long; it must not make the same mistake in the West Bank.