🔗 Share this article

Last week, amid a joint address by American leader Donald Trump and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, fellow lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I raised a sign calling for the recognition of the Palestinian state. We were violently ejected from the parliamentary session, exposing the weak state of what's often portrayed as the "only democracy in the region". How can leaders talk about Middle East peace while declining to recognize a population deprived of basic freedoms and entitlements under decades-long military control?

The Reality in the West Bank

In no place is the hypocrisy more apparent than in the occupied West Bank. There, words of reconciliation seem distant and weak, while the frightening sounds of settler violence and intimidation continue loudly. More than 30 occurrences of violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians have been recorded since the unveiling of the US peace proposal in September's end, featuring attacks, theft of agricultural produce, and burning of vehicles and property.

Targeted Aggression During Harvest Season

The increase in violence by colonists is deliberate. This time signals the beginning of agricultural harvesting. More than a crucial economic event, it constitutes an important communal and cultural moment that shows resilience under occupation. Exactly for these causes, annually colonists attack Palestinians throughout this crucial time. During the 2024 harvest season, human rights organizations recorded 113 separate incidents of violence, harassment, harvest-thwarting, or damage to olive trees and crops by settlers and soldiers, which took place on lands owned by 51 Palestinian-owned villages, towns, and communities.

Israeli military seemed to have had a greater role in hindering the olive harvest

Yesh Din also found that "Israel's security forces appeared to have played a larger role in obstructing the olive harvest". In about 70% of instances where access to lands was violently blocked, troops, border police officers, and settlement civilian security coordinators were physically present. They either directly stopped Palestinian farmers from accessing and gathering their own lands, or neglected to stop settlers who harassed or assaulted them.

Political Backing for Settler Activities

This comes as no shock, as the leader of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed as an additional official in the Ministry of Defence responsible for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. In one village, for instance, a special military coordination team removed private olive plants of Palestinians, claiming lack of permits, but ignored infractions by an unauthorized nearby settler outpost. Last week, the Jerusalem district court ruled to halt all construction in the outpost, which was built on property taken by Israeli authorities and illegally given to settlers.

Takeover Goals and International Response

In the controlled West Bank, colonist violence is simply a instrument used by the government to pursue de-facto annexation. Recently, Smotrich headed a march of many of settlers in favor of annexation the West Bank. He was reported as saying, "We are continuing to take hold with our feet of the territory with many settlers, many heroes, and hundreds of thousands of colonists who live in this area of the land ... we must to normalize it and establish it permanently."

The colonists and their backers in the parliament are explicit about their motives and goals. Why, then, do government officials in the Western nations hesitate from meaningful penalties and political actions? Smotrich was penalized by the UK in the summer, but the effect of the penalty has been minimal. He may not be able to travel to the United Kingdom and visit the London's entertainment district, but he still maintains the governmental authority to seize territories in the West Bank. Even in the declaration of penalties, the UK emphasized they take place "personally" only.

International Acknowledgment and Reality

If the British administration acknowledges the truth of settler violence and its serious consequences on Palestinian existence, why does it still permit goods from settlements to be marketed in markets and outlets in the UK? If Starmer is serious about acknowledging Palestinian statehood as a sovereign entity, how come he allow the Israeli government to breach its sovereignty with such violent means? Or was the recognition an empty tactic to shut down dissenting voices in the UK, a hollow act only to be realised in the relabeling of some cartographic representations?

Route Toward True Resolution

A just peace must respect the basic rights of the Palestinian people for self-recognition, independence, and freedom from occupation and blockade. Only when every person's dignity across the river and Mediterranean Sea is respected can we genuinely declare peace has been attained.

True resolution demands an sovereign Palestinian nation alongside the Israeli state: this is the only solution that has agreement among the international community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace camp.

The former US president may have applied influence on Netanyahu to halt the genocide, but he probably only did so because the burden of his connection with the pariah regime of the Israeli PM 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 factors behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this massive public campaign that a ceasefire has been agreed, the captives freed, and the people of the territory can experience protection from annihilation. Following the truce arrangement has been finalized, it is crucial to keep applying this influence. The world has ignored to the atrocities in the strip for many years; it must not make the same error in the West Bank.