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Last Monday, during a joint speech by American leader Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, colleague parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I displayed a banner urging the recognition of the Palestinian state. We were violently ejected from the parliamentary assembly, exposing the weak state of what's often portrayed as the "sole democracy in the region". How can leaders speak about Middle East peace while declining to acknowledge a people deprived of fundamental freedoms and rights under decades-long occupation?

The Reality in the West Bank

Nowhere is the deceit more evident than in the occupied West Bank. There, words of peace sound remote and faint, while the terrifying echoes of colonist attacks and terror continue loudly. Over 30 occurrences of violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians have been documented since the announcement of the US 20-point plan in late September, including physical assaults, stealing of agricultural produce, and burning of vehicles and property.

Systematic Aggression During Agricultural Period

The increase in violence by colonists is not coincidental. This time signals the beginning of agricultural harvesting. Beyond a vital economic event, it represents an significant communal and cultural occasion that shows resilience under occupation. Exactly for these reasons, annually settlers attack Palestinians during this crucial time. During the last year's agricultural period, human rights organizations documented 113 separate incidents of violence, intimidation, preventing harvesting, or destruction to olive trees and produce by Israeli civilians and soldiers, which took place on lands owned by 51 Palestinian-owned villages, municipalities, and areas.

Israel's security forces seemed to have played a larger part in obstructing the olive harvest

The human rights group also discovered that "Israeli security forces seemed to have played a larger role in obstructing the harvesting season". In about 70% of cases where access to lands was violently blocked, soldiers, border police officers, and settler civilian security coordinators were physically present. They either directly prevented Palestinians from accessing and gathering their property, or neglected to stop settlers who threatened or assaulted them.

Government Backing for Colonization

This is no shock, as the head of the settlers' political party, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed as an additional minister in the Defense Ministry responsible for the territorial coordination unit. In Umm al-Khair, for instance, a special military coordination team removed personally-owned olive trees of Palestinians, claiming lack of permits, but overlooked infractions by an unauthorized adjacent colonist encampment. Last week, the Jerusalem district court ruled to stop all building work in the outpost, which was built on property seized by Israeli authorities and illegally given to settlers.

Annexation Ambitions and Global Response

In the occupied West Bank, settler terrorism is simply a instrument used by the government to pursue practical incorporation. Earlier this month, Smotrich headed a march of thousands of settlers in favor of annexation the West Bank. He was reported as stating, "We persist to establish presence with our presence of the Land of Israel with many pioneers, many champions, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who reside in this part of the territory ... we must to normalize it and make it eternal."

The colonists and their backers in the parliament are explicit about their motives and goals. Why, then, do political leaders in the Western nations hesitate from meaningful sanctions and political actions? Smotrich was penalized by the United Kingdom in June, but the effect of the penalty has been minimal. He may not be able to go to the UK and visit the West End, but he still enjoys the ministerial power to take lands in the West Bank. Remarkably in the announcement of penalties, the British government emphasized they take place "in his personal capacity" only.

Global Acknowledgment and Reality

If the UK government acknowledges the truth of settler violence and its grave consequences on Palestinian existence, why does it still permit goods from settlements to be sold in markets and shops in the UK? If the British leader is serious about recognition of Palestine as a sovereign entity, how come he allow the Israeli administration to violate its independence with such violent means? Or was the recognition an hollow tactic to shut down dissenting voices in the UK, a hollow gesture only to be implemented in the relabeling of some maps?

Pathway to Genuine Resolution

A just peace must honor the fundamental entitlements of the Palestinian people for self-determination, sovereignty, and liberty from military occupation and siege. Only when every human being's dignity between the river and Mediterranean Sea is honored can we truly declare peace has been achieved.

Genuine peace requires an sovereign Palestinian nation next to the Israeli state: this is the only formula that has consensus among the international community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace camp.

Trump may have inflicted pressure on the Israeli leader to halt the genocide, but he probably only did so because the strain of his connection with the pariah regime of the Israeli PM had become too great. The mass protests across the globe for the liberation of Palestine, and the persistent opposition protests within Israel, are the actual forces behind this pressure.

It is due to this enormous public campaign that a truce has been agreed, the hostages released, and the residents of the territory can experience protection from annihilation. After the truce arrangement has been finalized, it is crucial to keep maintaining this influence. The international community has ignored to the violence in the strip for too long; it must not make the same mistake in the West Bank.