The current reality for Palestinians is nothing short of cataclysmic.
More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to health authorities there. Ninety percent of its 2.3 million people have been uprooted and most civilian infrastructure reduced to rubble. Israel’s ongoing assault on the enclave is already the deadliest episode and largest forced displacement in Palestinian history.
Although less apocalyptic, the situation is also disastrous in the West Bank, where at least 800 Palestinians have been killed in frequent raids by the Israeli Army and Israeli settlers’ unchecked terror since Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. It is the deadliest violence in the territory in more than two decades, and Palestinians’ feckless, ossified and visionless leadership has failed them throughout.
These are all grim realities, whose long-term consequences remain unknowable. But there are also powerful forces working in Palestinians’ favor that cannot be overlooked. The rapidly growing international solidarity movement, the historic prospect of the international community holding Israel to account and the Palestinians’ own extensive reservoir of talent and resilience hold out the promise that there is, despite the depth of the current crisis, a better future ahead.
Like other cataclysmic moments in Palestinian history, the continuing Gaza catastrophe will leave an indelible imprint on Palestinians’ national consciousness. A war that has killed more than 17,000 children and unleashed widespread starvation and disease could do nothing less. Left to fester, the human suffering and collective trauma, combined with a breakdown in social order in Gaza and a growing sense of despair, are precisely the conditions that could lead to generations of instability and violence.
In the near term, Palestinians will also face a new challenge: the incoming Trump administration. Donald Trump’s record during his first term as president and since his re-election leave little to the imagination. Despite positioning himself as “antiwar,” Mr. Trump has reportedly vowed to place even fewer constraints on weapons to Israel than the Biden administration. Mr. Trump’s recent proposed appointments, including the former governor Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel and the former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, not only seem to believe in a “Greater Israel” and oppose Palestinian self-determination but also appear to share the messianic zeal of the most extreme elements in Israeli politics, embodying a worldview that actively erases Palestinians. Meanwhile, many in Mr. Trump’s circle are vowing to clamp down on pro-Palestinian activism across the United States.
But there is an opportunity for a different future. Such attempts to silence Palestinian voices are themselves a response to one of the Palestinians’ most powerful tools: the global recognition of the justice of their cause. Unlike in 1948, when the state of Israel was founded and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled or fled, or in 1967, when Israel occupied Palestinian lands after the Arab-Israeli War, today there is an international solidarity movement committed to Palestinian liberation. It is mobilized like never before.
The persistence of protests on university campuses across North America and Europe in particular, despite the repression and smears often wielded against them, highlight the profound generational change in how many in the West view the issue, from a dominantly pro-Israel narrative to one more focused on Palestinian rights and humanity. While the campus protests might be dismissed as politically insignificant, they point to a deeper shift in public opinion that could eventually produce a change in policy.
And there are other important ways change could come about. Recent rulings by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court hold out at least the possibility of accountability for the widespread death and destruction in Gaza.
Despite its well-documented history of abuses against Palestinians, Israel has never been formally held to account, either in the context of the U.S.-led peace process or any other international process. Now, given the evidence of widespread and egregious violations of international law in the current war, accountability has become paramount. Last January, after South Africa filed a case to the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, the court concluded that at least some of South Africa’s concerns were “plausible” and ordered Israel to prevent its forces from committing genocidal acts. Although Israel and the U.S. have rejected the accusations of genocide, the order nevertheless represented a major watershed in the century-old conflict in Israel and Palestine.
Moreover, November’s International Criminal Court decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza marks the first time the court has acted against a major ally of the United States. Although the International Court of Justice case will take years to adjudicate and Israeli leaders are unlikely to face trial in The Hague any time soon, the court cases struck an irreversible blow against Israel’s longstanding impunity and its reputation in the world. Regardless of whether these cases go to trial, it will be impossible for history to ignore the events that led to them.
The ongoing leadership vacuum among Palestinians has no doubt exacerbated their suffering. Neither Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority in the West Bank nor Hamas’s reckless and degraded leadership have been able to offer solutions to the various existential challenges their people now face. Still, the Palestinians’ greatest hope comes from within: With one of the highest literacy rates in the world (98 percent) and a culture known for its emphasis on education and innovation, the Palestinian people are their own best asset. It is no surprise that a new generation of Palestinian leaders has emerged in Gaza, the West Bank and the diaspora who are challenging the failings of their predecessors, both internally and in the international arena.
They include people like Bisan Owda, the journalist, activist and filmmaker whose visceral stories of survival, grief and hope in Gaza have inspired millions around the world. Her viral short video “It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive” earned an Emmy and other awards, despite a campaign that accused her of ties to terrorism, a common allegation leveled against many Palestinians of prominence, which she has denied. Another example is Issa Amro, the intrepid human rights defender and nonviolent activist based in Hebron in the West Bank, who has suffered beatings, imprisonment and harassment at the hands of Israeli soldiers, Palestinian security forces and extremist Jewish settlers alike. With little more than a camera and his voice, Mr. Amro has worked tirelessly to protect Palestinian homes and properties from seizure by violent Israeli settlers and soldiers and to shine a light on Hebron’s apartheid reality.
Ahmed Abu Artema is an independent journalist, an activist and an organizer of the Great Return March, a nonviolent protest movement whose weekly demonstrations brought attention to the plight of Palestinian refugees and the crippling Gaza blockade. Nada Tarbush, a Geneva-based, Oxford-educated diplomat, has issued impassioned pleas in the halls of the United Nations for her people’s rights, freedom and dignity. They all represent a hopeful contrast to the hollow platitudes usually heard from the halls of power in Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is based.
These are, of course, only a few of the emerging Palestinian leaders. Whether the future that arises out of the ashes of Gaza is defined by them and their peers or by continued chaos and violence will to a large extent also depend on how the rest of the world responds — and whether the United States and other Western governments can finally listen to and embrace authentic Palestinian voices and Palestinian agency.
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