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Last week, during a combined address by US President Donald Trump and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, colleague parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I displayed a sign calling for the recognition of the Palestinian state. We were violently ejected from the parliamentary assembly, revealing the fragile state of what's often portrayed as the "only democratic state in the region". How can officials speak about regional peace while refusing to recognize a people denied of basic freedoms and entitlements under decades-long occupation?

The Situation in the Occupied West Bank

In no place is the deceit more evident than in the controlled West Bank. There, talk of peace sound distant and weak, while the frightening sounds of settler violence and terror continue strongly. More than 30 incidents of violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians have been recorded since the announcement of the US peace proposal in September's end, featuring attacks, theft of crops, and burning of cars and property.

Systematic Aggression During Harvest Season

The rise in violence by colonists is not coincidental. This time signals the start of agricultural harvesting. More than a vital economic event, it constitutes an significant social and cultural moment that shows resilience under occupation. Precisely for these reasons, annually settlers target Palestinian farmers throughout this precious period. During the last year's agricultural period, rights groups recorded 113 separate cases of violence, intimidation, preventing harvesting, or damage to olive trees and crops by Israeli civilians and soldiers, which occurred on lands belonging to 51 Palestinian communities, municipalities, and areas.

Israel's military seemed to have had a greater role in obstructing the harvesting season

Yesh Din also discovered that "Israeli security forces appeared to have had a greater part in obstructing the olive harvest". In approximately 70% of instances where access to farmland was forcibly blocked, soldiers, border guards, and settlement security officials were physically present. They either personally stopped Palestinian farmers from reaching and gathering their own lands, or neglected to stop colonists who harassed or attacked them.

Government Support for Colonization

This is no shock, as the head of the colonists' political movement, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed as an additional minister in the Defense Ministry in charge of the territorial coordination unit. In one village, for instance, a special military coordination team uprooted private olive trees of local residents, claiming missing documentation, but overlooked infractions by an illegal adjacent colonist encampment. Last week, the local court decided to stop all construction in the encampment, which was constructed on property seized by Israeli authorities and illegally given to colonists.

Annexation Goals and Global Response

In the controlled West Bank, settler terrorism is simply a tool used by the government to achieve de-facto annexation. Earlier this month, Smotrich led a procession of many of settlers in favor of taking over the West Bank. He was quoted as stating, "We persist to take hold with our feet of the Land of Israel with numerous settlers, numerous heroes, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who reside in this part of the territory ... we need to normalize it and establish it permanently."

The settlers and their supporters in the parliament are clear about their motives and intentions. Why, then, do political leaders in the west hesitate from meaningful sanctions and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was penalized by the United Kingdom in June, but the impact of the sanction has been minimal. He may not be able to go to the UK and visit the West End, but he still maintains the ministerial power to seize lands in the West Bank. Even in the announcement of penalties, the British government highlighted they take place "personally" only.

Global Acknowledgment and Reality

If the British administration recognizes the truth of settler violence and its serious consequences on Palestinian life, why does it still permit goods from settlements to be marketed in markets and outlets in Britain? If the British leader is genuine about recognition of Palestine as a sovereign entity, how come he permit the Israeli government to violate its independence with such violent means? Or was the recognition an hollow tactic to silence dissenting voices in the UK, a meaningless act only to be implemented in the rebranding of some cartographic representations?

Route Toward Genuine Resolution

A just peace must honor the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people for self-recognition, sovereignty, and liberty from military occupation and siege. Only when each person's worth across the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is honored can we truly declare reconciliation has been attained.

Genuine resolution requires an sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel: this is the only formula that enjoises agreement among the global community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace advocates.

Trump may have applied pressure on the Israeli leader to halt the violence, but he likely only did so because the strain of his relationship with the isolated government of Netanyahu had become too great. The large demonstrations throughout the globe for the freedom of Palestine, and the persistent anti-government protests inside the country, are the real forces behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this enormous public campaign that a truce has been agreed, the hostages released, and the residents of the territory can experience protection from destruction. After the ceasefire agreement has been signed, it is crucial to continue applying this pressure. The world has ignored to the violence in the strip for too long; it must not make the same mistake in the occupied territories.