SYDNEY, Jan 13 (IPS) – Thank God we have survived another year of genocide, war, destruction and climate crisis. The passing year of 2024 was a year of intersection between hope and despair. This means that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by South Africa on charges of genocide against Israel and took all measures within its power to prevent Israel from committing any acts within the scope of Article 2 of the Convention. It began with some hope, with orders to take . Comply with the Genocide Convention and take immediate and effective steps to provide urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse living conditions faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Unfortunately, hope was quickly lost as genocide continued by the very people who promised “never again” and worked tirelessly for the Genocide Convention. Officially, more than 45,000 people died, mostly women and children. According to the prestigious medical journal Lancet, the cumulative impact of Israel’s destruction of hospitals, blocking of aid, disruption of water and electricity supplies, and all other means of ethnic cleansing brought the actual death toll by July 2024 to more than 186,000.
Ironically, Israel’s trampling of the ICJ and international humanitarian law is possible because of the support of the United States and its allies. We are grappling with the inexplicable sight of stone-faced Western allies ignoring and actually justifying the massacre and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
I have written three articles for IPS to explain the unexplainable. The Gaza Massacre and Western Hypocrisy (March 4, 2024); ‘Infinite’ impunity emboldens Israel (February 27, 2024) and Frankenstein moment in the wild west (February 14, 2024). Amidst the ongoing fear, injustice, and misery of the Palestinian occupiers, I thought it was pointless to write or conduct academic analysis.
Instead, I chose activism and joined the mass protests that have become a regular feature around the world, loudly and defiantly declaring that “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea,” where both Palestinians and Jews will live. As free citizens and equal human beings, we enjoy full democratic and economic rights that enable us to realize our full potential.
Inspired by the resilience of the Palestinian people in refusing to surrender and demanding a life of dignity, my children and grandchildren also joined.
It seems like people power is starting to have a positive impact. Particularly in the Global South, more countries are taking firm stances against Israel’s apartheid state. Breaking with the Western Allies. Norway, Ireland, Spain and Slovenia recognized the state of Palestine. Australia has shifted its position to support a UN vote calling on Israel to end its occupation of Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
But there were also more disappointing events. Israel has expanded its merciless bombing into Lebanon, assassinated key figures and eliminated potential partners in a peace agreement. The war in Ukraine has become more prolonged while President Putin has threatened to use nuclear warheads. And the United States, the supposed leader of the so-called rules-based “free world,” elected Donald Trump, a rule-busting narcissist who insists on American hegemony and exceptionalism, as president. The CoP29 climate summit ended disappointingly, with the world’s most vulnerable countries left behind and little progress made on fossil fuel reductions.
As the conflict prolongs, the fate of refugees in Sudan and Myanmar has worsened. Amnesty International reported“The Arakan Army unlawfully killed Rohingya civilians, drove them from their homes and left them vulnerable to attack. “These attacks faced by the Rohingya come on top of indiscriminate airstrikes by the Myanmar military that have killed both Rohingya and Rakhine civilians.”
Rohingya – World’s largest stateless population – They continue to face persecution and abuse. They now face the following situation: double edged sword As the Arakan Army tightens the noose around the Myanmar military.
Conflict in Sudan has caused man-made famine. The world’s largest hunger crisisAnd it is the world’s worst internally displaced persons crisis. More than one-fifth of the country was lost in a war that lasted nearly 20 months. Over 12 million peopleI was kicked out of my house.
Nonetheless, there was a spark of hope. The heroic people of Syria and Bangladesh toppled oppressive regimes that had seemed almost impossible the day before. And it seems that a new dawn has arrived for these countries.
The people of Syria and Bangladesh hope for a just, fair and democratic society. But they are genuinely concerned because this systemic transition is fraught with uncertainty. It’s like a caterpillar changing inside a cocoon. It may come out as a butterfly or a moth.
The shadow of the failed Arab Spring in Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia haunts the Syrian people. They also fear Israel expanding its occupation and the sectarian conflict and great power games that have followed in Libya.
In the case of Bangladesh, the past three attempts at systemic transformation have ended in disappointment. Just three years after gaining independence at the cost of millions of lives, the country’s high hopes for a democratic and just society quickly disappeared as the country underwent unprecedented extrajudicial killings, vote manipulation, and finally transformed into a one-party state. A second attempt after 1975 was aborted by the coup of Ershad, whose military-civilian regime was neither a butterfly nor a moth, but a hybrid. Then, in the third attempt after 1990, it turned into a monster under the kleptomaniac rule of tyrant Hasina through theft and severe oppression.
Despair should not overpower hope. Human history is a story of struggle. But our ability to rise again each time we fall, to emerge from the depths of despair with newfound determination and unwavering hope, determines our progress.
Anise ChowdhuryProfessor Emeritus, Western Sydney University (Australia). He has held senior United Nations positions in New York and Bangkok. email: [email protected]
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