While International Focus Remains on Gaza, Israel's Colonists in the Occupied Territories Continue Acting With Impunity

Last week, amid a joint address by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, colleague parliamentarian Ayman Odeh and I raised a sign calling for the recognition of Palestine. We were forcibly removed from the parliamentary assembly, exposing the fragile state of what's frequently described as the "only democracy in the region". How can officials speak about regional peace while declining to acknowledge a people denied of basic freedoms and rights under decades-long military control?

The Reality in the Occupied West Bank

In no place is the hypocrisy more apparent than in the occupied West Bank. There, words of reconciliation sound remote and faint, while the frightening sounds of colonist attacks and terror continue strongly. More than 30 incidents of settler aggression against Palestinian civilians have been recorded since the announcement of the Trump administration's peace proposal in September's end, including attacks, stealing of crops, and torching of vehicles and belongings.

Targeted Violence During Harvest Season

The rise in settler terrorism is deliberate. This time signals the beginning of harvest seasons. More than a crucial economic activity, it constitutes an important communal and national occasion that demonstrates resilience under military rule. Exactly for these causes, annually settlers attack Palestinians during this precious period. During the 2024 harvest period, rights groups recorded 113 distinct cases of aggression, intimidation, harvest-thwarting, or damage to olive trees and crops by settlers and soldiers, which took place on lands belonging to 51 Palestinian villages, municipalities, and areas.

Israel's security forces seemed to have had a greater role in hindering the olive harvest

The human rights group also discovered that "Israel's security forces seemed to have had a larger role in obstructing the harvesting season". In approximately 70% of cases where entry to lands was violently blocked, troops, border police officers, and settler civilian security coordinators were physically present. They either personally prevented Palestinians from accessing and gathering their property, or neglected to stop colonists who harassed or assaulted them.

Political Backing for Settler Activities

This comes as no shock, as the head of the settlers' political party, Bezalel Smotrich, was named as an extra minister in the Ministry of Defence responsible for the territorial coordination unit. In Umm al-Khair, for example, a particular COGAT unit removed private olive trees of local residents, citing missing documentation, but overlooked violations by an unauthorized adjacent colonist encampment. Last week, the local court decided to halt all construction in the outpost, which was constructed on property seized by Israeli authorities and unlawfully given to colonists.

Takeover Ambitions and International Response

In the occupied West Bank, colonist violence is simply a tool used by the administration to pursue de-facto annexation. Recently, Smotrich headed a procession of many of settlers in support of annexation the West Bank. He was reported as saying, "We persist to establish presence with our feet of the Land of Israel with numerous pioneers, numerous champions, and countless of colonists who live in this area of the territory ... we need to normalise it and establish it permanently."

The colonists and their supporters in the Knesset are explicit about their intentions and intentions. Why, then, do government officials in the Western nations refrain from substantial penalties and political actions? Smotrich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in June, but the impact of the penalty has been limited. He may not be able to travel to the United Kingdom and tour the London's entertainment district, but he still enjoys the ministerial power to seize territories in the West Bank. Remarkably in the declaration of penalties, the British government emphasized they take place "in his personal capacity" solely.

Global Acknowledgment and Reality

If the UK government recognizes the reality of colonist aggression and its serious implications on Palestinian existence, why does it still permit settlement produce to be marketed in markets and shops in the UK? If the British leader is serious about recognition of Palestine as a state, how can he allow the Israeli government to violate its independence with such aggressive methods? Or was the recognition an hollow ploy to silence dissenting voices in the United Kingdom, a hollow gesture only to be implemented in the relabeling of some maps?

Pathway to True Peace

A just resolution must respect the basic rights of the Palestinian population for self-determination, sovereignty, and liberty from occupation and siege. Only when every person's dignity between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is respected can we genuinely say peace has been attained.

True peace demands an independent Palestinian state next to Israel: this is the sole solution that has agreement among the global community, the Palestinian leadership, and the Israeli peace advocates.

Trump may have applied pressure on Netanyahu to halt the violence, but he likely only did so because the strain of his connection with the isolated government of Netanyahu had become excessive. The large demonstrations throughout the world for the liberation of Palestinian territories, and the persistent opposition protests inside Israel, are the actual forces behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this massive public campaign that a ceasefire has been agreed, the hostages released, and the people of Gaza can experience safeguard from annihilation. Following the truce arrangement has been finalized, it is vital to keep applying this pressure. The international community has ignored to the atrocities in Gaza for many years; it must not make the same mistake in the West Bank.