Amid genocide, the tide is turning on Palestine

In the past 14 months, the suffering of the Palestinian people, which began with the Nakba and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, has reached completely new levels. &nbsp, More than 46, 000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and more than 110, 000 injured in Israel’s continuing genocide in Gaza. Taus of thousands of others are alleged to be buried beneath the rubble of their destroyed homes, while a number are still missing, being detained arbitrarily, or both. Israel’s relentless attacks have not spared homes, schools, and even hospitals in the besieged Strip. Hundreds of thousands of survivors, pushed out of their homes and into makeshift tents in so-called “safe zones”, are facing indiscriminate air strikes, daily massacres, disease outbreaks, hunger and harsh winter conditions with no end in sight to their misery. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are also at risk of losing their fundamental rights and freedoms to Israeli forces.

Palestinians keep track of Israel’s atrocities against their people and publish them online in real time for everyone to see. A number of nations, including Mexico, Brazil, and Turkiye, are supporting South Africa’s attempt to prosecute Israel for genocide at the World Court. Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister Yoav Gallant have been on arrest warrants by the ICC for allegedly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since the start of the genocide in October of 2023, the global public has been expressing its support for Palestinians with tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protests, vigils, and sit-ins held all over the world.

Despite all this, however, Israel appears able to continue its crimes openly and with impunity. This is because its Western supporters and benefactors, especially the United States, turn a blind eye to all of Israel’s excesses, and refuse to acknowledge – let alone punish – its blatant violations of international law.

Washington particularly, as the main supplier of arms, bombs and other military equipment to Israel, has not done anything to help end the genocide in the past 14 months. On the contrary, it has done everything in its power to shield Israel from accountability. For instance, it has abused its veto four times, most recently on November 20 to obstruct a UN Security Council resolution requiring a ceasefire. It also voted against the UN General Assembly resolution, supported by 154 member states, calling for an immediate end to Israel’s war on Gaza. The House of Representatives recently passed a bill to sanction the court, and it is also trying to punish the ICC for issuing warrants against Israeli leaders.

There is nothing Palestinian supporters can do to end the suffering of the Palestinian people or ensure the respect of their fundamental human rights, so long as the US military, political, and financial support for Israel continues, it seems.

Thankfully, however, the past 14 months were not marked only by losses and disappointment. In this period, Palestinian supporters have also won significant political, legal, and electoral victories. Most importantly, despite the world’s inability to put an end to Israel’s genocide and lawless occupation, the Palestinian cause has more support in the global public square today than ever before. Israel is becoming a pariah. And this matters.

Indeed, even in America, where politicians seem committed to protecting Israel at any cost, people have regularly taken to the streets to demand an end to the brutal war on Gaza’s population. American universities, from coast to coast, have been taken over by Gaza solidarity encampments. Although the majority of these demonstrations were brutally harmed and many of their participants received severe punishment, they still managed to demonstrate to the world that Americans do not support genocide. They also helped to change the perception of the genocide among Americans by bringing attention to the funding sources of their country in Gaza.

Palestine, another of Israel’s traditional ally, has started receiving unmatched support at both the official and grassroots levels in Western Europe.

Official support for Israel’s war is still strong on the continent, despite Europe’s dependence on US and Israel’s long-standing ties to and extensive lobbying efforts in most of Europe.

The German government, for example, has been unwavering in its support for Israel since the very beginning of the genocide, and to this day supports and defends all actions of the Netanyahu government.

But pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide voices gained significant prominence across Europe’s political, legal, media, entertainment and economic sectors, as well as in unions, academia and among students, gradually moving several European governments and leading institutions to stand for international law and Palestinian human rights.

In the first year of the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, there were more than 26, 000 demonstrations and other activities in support of Palestinian rights, according to data from the European Palestinian Information Center (EPAL).

European governments are starting to slowly show their support for the struggle in response to the growing demand for justice in Palestine from the public in Europe. In the genocide case against Israel, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, and Spain all agreed. The number of EU countries receiving this recognition increased to 10 with the recognition of the Palestinian state by Spain and Ireland. The UK has suspended some licenses, and French President Emmanuel Macron has demanded that all arms exports be stopped. Israel has recently decided to close its embassy there because Israel has been so vocal about its opposition to the genocide.

Supporters of Palestine have made significant gains in several European countries over the past year despite the overarching rise of the right and the obvious successes of right-wing parties in various elections.

The French national elections held in mid-2024, for example, saw the left-wing France Unbowed, whose leader Jean-Luc Melenchon played a key role in organising pro-Palestine demonstrations in the country, emerge victorious. The pro-Palestinian party also secured 11 seats in the European Parliament.

In addition, pro-Palestine voices gained a significant amount during the European Parliamentary elections. Sweden’s Left Party, for example, which enjoys strong support from Sweden’s Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim minorities due to its active advocacy for Palestine, gained two seats. Denmark also elected several vocally pro-Palestine representatives.

Five pro-Palestinian candidates, including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, were elected in the United Kingdom’s parliamentary elections last year, where weekly demonstrations calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the end of the occupation attracted tens of thousands of people. These MPs later organized a “Independence Alliance” parliamentary group and began pressing Keir Starmer’s Labour government to support a ceasefire in Gaza and condemn Israel’s war crimes.

After receiving enough support to get their names on the ballot in seven out of nine states, pro-Palestine candidates in Austria took part in the national election in September under the name “Gaza list: Voices against genocide.” They not only managed to bring attention to the genocide in Gaza within the Austrian political conversation, but actually secured nearly&nbsp, 20, 000 votes in the election, showing the growing strength of pro-Palestinian voices in the traditionally pro-Israel nation.

In the last year, those fighting for justice in Palestine also won significant legal victories.

In Italy, Palestinian rights advocates successfully battled the Italian state television network “Rai,” which incorrectly referred to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in a news release. In a subsequent bulletin, the judge ordered Rai to publicly correct its error, stating that Jerusalem is not Israel’s capital.

Anti-genocide activists are suing the Dutch government to halt its exports of weapons to Israel in response to its actions in Gaza. The Dutch people were made aware of the country’s role in facilitating Israel’s genocidal war when the court proceedings were broadcast live on Dutch state television.

The Hind Rajab Foundation, which was established in Belgium in September, filed several cases with the ICC and local courts in support of Palestine.

The foundation sent a list of the names of a thousand Israeli soldiers suspected of engaging in war crimes to the ICC, named after the six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli tank fire in Gaza while she was trapped in a car full of her relatives’ bodies. The foundation used various methods to gather evidence against the alleged Israeli soldiers, including their personal social media accounts, where they boasted of crimes against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers’ movements abroad have also been tracked by the foundation, and they have filed lawsuits against them in local courts. It located and filed complaints against suspected war criminals vacationing in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Belgium, the Netherlands, Serbia, Ireland, Cyprus and most recently Sweden. The foundation’s actions strengthened Israel’s reputation as a global pariah and made it more difficult to forge ahead with its soldiers’ travel plans.

Meanwhile, The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement also had significant success in curtailing support for Israel in the past year.

In response to pressure from activists and governments to end the Gaza war, several of Europe’s largest financial companies have cut their ties to Israeli companies or those with ties to the country, according to a Reuters analysis released in November. UN Trade and Development data shows that in 2023, total foreign direct investment in Israel dropped by 29 percent, which is its lowest level since 2016.

In summary, activists from all over the world have been working harder than ever to bring justice to the Palestinian people despite the fact that the international community has not yet been successful in putting an end to Israel’s crimes. The Israel-Palestine conflict has had a significant impact on the perceptions of the world because of its clear-cut and meticulous genocide against Gaza. The tide is quickly shifting in favor of Palestine, even if the US does not appear to be moving toward giving up its support for the settler colony.

The tide is undoubtedly changing, but the fight is far from over. Before Palestine is free and Israel is held accountable for the numerous crimes it has committed and continues to commit against the long-suffering Palestinian people, it is imperative that Palestinians and their supporters keep exposing the truth about Israel’s war crimes, illegal occupation, and ethnic cleansing operations.

Source: Aljazeera