While International Attention Stays on Gaza, Israeli Settlers in the West Bank Continue Acting With Impunity

Last week, during a joint speech by US President Donald Trump and Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, colleague parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I raised a sign urging the recognition of the Palestinian state. We were violently ejected from the parliamentary assembly, revealing the weak condition of what's often described as the "only democracy in the region". How can leaders speak about Middle East peace while declining to recognize a people denied of fundamental 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 occupied West Bank. There, talk of reconciliation seem distant and faint, while the frightening echoes of colonist attacks and intimidation continue loudly. More than 30 occurrences of violence by settlers against Palestinians have been recorded since the announcement of the Trump administration's peace proposal in September's end, featuring attacks, stealing of crops, and burning of cars and property.

Systematic Violence During Harvest Season

The increase in settler terrorism is deliberate. This period signals the beginning of agricultural harvesting. Beyond a crucial economic activity, it constitutes an important communal and national moment that demonstrates endurance under occupation. Exactly for these reasons, annually settlers target Palestinians throughout this crucial period. During the last year's agricultural period, rights groups recorded 113 separate cases of aggression, harassment, harvest-thwarting, or destruction to olive groves and produce by settlers and military personnel, which took place on territories owned by 51 Palestinian-owned communities, towns, and communities.

Israel's security forces seemed to have played a greater part in hindering the olive harvest

The human rights group also discovered that "Israel's military appeared to have had a larger part in obstructing the harvesting season". In approximately 70% of instances where entry to farmland was violently blocked, soldiers, border police officers, and settlement civilian security coordinators were actually on site. They either directly stopped Palestinians from reaching and harvesting their property, or failed to stop colonists who harassed or attacked them.

Government Backing for Colonization

This is no surprise, as the leader of the settlers' political party, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed as an additional official in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the territorial coordination unit. In Umm al-Khair, for example, a particular COGAT unit removed personally-owned olive trees of local residents, citing missing documentation, but overlooked infractions by an illegal nearby colonist encampment. Last week, the Jerusalem district court decided to stop all construction in the outpost, which was constructed on property taken by Israel and illegally transferred to colonists.

Takeover Goals and International Reaction

In the controlled West Bank, settler terrorism is nothing but a instrument used by the government to achieve de-facto annexation. Recently, Smotrich headed a procession of many of colonists in favor of taking over the West Bank. He was reported as stating, "We persist to take hold with our feet of the Land of Israel with numerous settlers, numerous champions, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who live in this area of the land ... we must to normalise it and establish it permanently."

The colonists and their backers in the Knesset are explicit about their motives and intentions. Why, then, do government officials in the west hesitate from meaningful penalties and political actions? Smotrich was sanctioned by the UK in the summer, but the impact of the penalty has been limited. He may not be permitted to travel to the United Kingdom and tour the West End, but he still maintains the governmental authority to seize lands in the West Bank. Even in the declaration of penalties, the British government emphasized they apply "personally" only.

International Acknowledgment and Actual Situation

If the UK government recognizes the reality of colonist aggression and its grave implications on Palestinian existence, why does it still allow goods from settlements to be marketed in markets and shops in Britain? If the British leader is genuine about acknowledging Palestinian statehood as a sovereign entity, how come he allow the Israeli government to breach its independence with such violent means? Or was the recognition an empty tactic to silence dissenting voices in the United Kingdom, a hollow gesture only to be realised in the relabeling of some cartographic representations?

Pathway to Genuine Peace

A fair peace must honor the fundamental entitlements of the Palestinian population for self-determination, independence, and liberty from occupation and blockade. Only when every person's dignity across the Jordan River and sea is respected can we genuinely declare peace has been attained.

True peace requires an independent Palestinian nation alongside Israel: this is the sole solution that enjoises agreement among the international community, the Palestinian national movement, and the Israeli peace camp.

Trump may have applied influence on Netanyahu to stop the genocide, but he probably only did so because the strain of his relationship with the isolated government of the Israeli PM had become too great. The mass protests across the globe for the liberation of Palestinian territories, and the persistent anti-government demonstrations inside Israel, are the real forces behind this influence.

It is thanks to this enormous civil movement that a truce has been agreed, the hostages freed, and the residents of the territory can enjoy safeguard from destruction. Following the ceasefire agreement has been signed, it is crucial to continue maintaining this pressure. The international community has ignored to the violence in Gaza for many years; it must not make the same error in the West Bank.