Advert
Supported by
Invited essay
By Khaled Elgindy
Elgindy is a senior fellow and director of the Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs Program at the Middle East Institute.
The current truth for the Palestinians is catastrophic.
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 scenario is also terrible in the West Bank, where at least 800 Palestinians have died in common raids by the Israeli army and in out-of-control terror perpetrated by Israeli settlers since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. in the territory in more than two decades, and Palestinian leaders are thoughtless, frozen and lacking vision. I have let it go.
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 catastrophic moments in Palestinian history, the current disaster in Gaza will leave an indelible mark on the national consciousness of Palestinians. A war that killed more than 17,000 young people and caused widespread famine and disease could not be any less. Left behind, human suffering and collective trauma, combined with the breakdown of social order in Gaza and a growing sense of hopelessness, are exactly the situations that can lead to generations of instability and violence.
In the short term, the Palestinians will also face a new challenge: the new Trump administration. Donald Trump’s record during his first presidential term and since his re-election leaves little to the imagination. Although he positions himself as a “pacifist,” Trump has reportedly promised to impose even fewer gun restrictions on Israel than the Biden administration. Trump’s recent proposed nominations, adding former Governor Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel and former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, appear to not only support and oppose a “Greater Israel. ” for Palestinian self-determination, but they also appear to be percentages of the messianic zeal of the most extremist elements of Israeli politics, embodying a worldview that actively erases Palestinians. Meanwhile, many in Trump’s inner circle are committed to suppressing 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.
We are recovering the content of the article.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we determine access. If you’re in Reader mode, exit and log into your Times account or subscribe to the full Times.
Thank you for your patience while we determine access.
Are you already subscribed? Access.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Advertisement