🔗 Share this article

Last week, during a combined address by American leader Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, colleague lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I raised a banner calling for the acknowledgment of Palestine. We were violently removed from the legislative session, revealing the weak state of what's often portrayed as the "only democratic state in the Middle East". How can leaders talk about regional peace while refusing to acknowledge a people denied of basic freedoms and rights under long-standing military control?

The Situation in the Occupied West Bank

Nowhere is the deceit more apparent than in the controlled West Bank. There, talk of peace sound distant and weak, while the terrifying sounds of settler violence and terror continue strongly. More than 30 incidents of violence by settlers against Palestinians have been recorded since the unveiling of the US 20-point plan in September's end, including attacks, theft of crops, and torching of vehicles and property.

Targeted Violence During Harvest Season

The increase in settler terrorism is not coincidental. This period signals the start of harvest seasons. More than a crucial economic activity, it constitutes an important social and cultural occasion that demonstrates resilience under occupation. Exactly for these causes, year after year colonists target Palestinians during this precious period. During the last year's agricultural season, rights groups recorded 113 separate incidents of aggression, intimidation, preventing harvesting, or destruction to olive trees and crops by Israeli civilians and military personnel, which took place on territories belonging to 51 Palestinian communities, towns, and areas.

Israeli security forces appeared to have had a greater part in hindering the olive harvest

The human rights group also discovered that "Israeli security forces seemed to have had a greater part in obstructing the olive harvest". In about 70% of cases where entry to farmland was violently prevented, soldiers, border police officers, and settlement security officials were physically present. They either personally stopped Palestinian farmers from accessing and gathering their property, or neglected to stop settlers who threatened or attacked them.

Political Support for Colonization

This is no shock, as the leader of the settlers' political party, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed 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 particular military coordination team uprooted personally-owned olive trees of local residents, claiming missing documentation, but overlooked infractions by an unauthorized nearby colonist encampment. Last week, the local court ruled to stop all construction in the outpost, which was constructed on lands taken by Israeli authorities and unlawfully given to colonists.

Takeover Ambitions and Global Reaction

In the controlled West Bank, colonist violence is simply a tool used by the government to achieve practical annexation. Earlier this month, Smotrich headed a march of thousands of settlers in favor of annexation the West Bank. He was quoted as saying, "We persist to take hold with our presence of the territory with many settlers, numerous champions, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who live in this part of the land ... we must to normalise it and establish it permanently."

The settlers and their supporters in the Knesset are clear about their intentions and goals. Why, then, do political leaders in the west refrain from meaningful penalties and political actions? Smotrich was sanctioned by the UK in the summer, but the effect of the sanction has been minimal. He may not be able to travel to the United Kingdom and visit the West End, but he still enjoys the governmental authority to seize lands in the West Bank. Remarkably in the announcement of penalties, the British government emphasized they take place "in his personal capacity" only.

International Acknowledgment and Actual Situation

If the UK government recognizes the truth of colonist aggression and its serious implications on Palestinian existence, why does it still permit goods from settlements to be sold in stores and outlets in Britain? If Starmer is genuine about acknowledging Palestinian statehood as a sovereign entity, how can he permit the Israeli administration to breach its sovereignty with such violent means? Or was the recognition an empty ploy to silence opposition in the United Kingdom, a meaningless gesture only to be implemented in the rebranding of some maps?

Pathway to Genuine Peace

A fair peace must respect the basic rights of the Palestinian people for self-recognition, independence, and liberty from military occupation and blockade. Only when every person's dignity between the river and Mediterranean Sea is respected can we genuinely declare reconciliation has been achieved.

Genuine peace demands an sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel: this is the sole solution that has consensus among the global community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace camp.

Trump may have inflicted pressure on the Israeli leader to halt the violence, but he probably only did so because the strain of his connection with the pariah regime of Netanyahu had become too great. The large demonstrations across the globe for the freedom of Palestine, and the unwavering opposition demonstrations inside the country, are the real forces behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this enormous public campaign that a ceasefire has been signed, the captives freed, and the people of Gaza can enjoy safeguard from annihilation. After the ceasefire agreement has been signed, it is crucial to continue applying this influence. The international community has turned a blind eye to the atrocities in the strip for many years; it must not repeat the same mistake in the occupied territories.