Will the new year really bring anything new?

Dr Amira Abo el-Fetouh

As 2024 prepares to hand over to 2025, it leaves behind many pending conflicts and issues. Problems plague the Arab and Muslim world, largely inherited from previous years. Crises continue to develop and are passed down from one year to another.

Dominating the headlines throughout 2024 was the Zionist enemy’s genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Although many years in the making, it has lasted in earnest for 14 months and counting.

The Israel occupation forces, aided and abetted by the US and other allies, have committed the most heinous war crimes and crimes against humanity, killing at least 45,500 Palestinians — mainly women and children — and wounding 110,000 others. An estimated 11,000 more are missing, presumed dead, under the rubble of their homes and other civilian infrastructure destroyed by the so-called Israel “Defence” Forces.

Not even the healthcare facilities are safe. The latest facility to be destroyed is Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, watched by the whole world; we can hear the screams of the patients, but fail to act. We live in a world run by those with no conscience operating with double standards and blatant hypocrisy. The Arab and Muslim world is no different; our governments can see what is happening but do nothing. They are a disgrace to the Arab and Muslim Ummah, and history will judge them badly.

The situation across the Muslim world is getting worse year by year; it’s heartbreaking. Every Muslim who cares about their deen is saddened by this state of affairs; weak, humiliated and disgraced, we fail to live up to being “the best nation put forth for mankind” that the Almighty has told us about. He gave this nation more strength, capabilities and wealth than any other, as well as the correct deen, and yet we are subjugated by our enemies. These enemies are open about their hostility towards Muslims and fight against Islam under the pretext of the bogus “war against terrorism”, using the Arab leaders they appointed as the spearhead for this dirty conflict.

Even as 2025 approaches, the situation facing the Palestinians gets worse, both in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. The far-right Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu carries on with total disregard for the genocide charges at the International Court of Justice and the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court. There is no sign of an independent Palestinian state that the Palestinian leadership has been deceived by since the Oslo Accords. Al-Aqsa Mosque continues to be desecrated by Zionist infiltrators and illegal Jewish settlers.

Despite all the oppression, humiliation and abuse of the Palestinians, nothing moves the conscience of the “civilised” world. Human rights and international laws are trampled in the dust by the Zionists, who are allowed to act with impunity.

The Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation are seeing what is happening in Gaza with their own eyes and are not lifting a finger. They are deaf, dumb and blind to the situation. They are a disgrace. Their silence is a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

I do not want to be pessimistic, but this is the reality that many Arabs may overlook as they welcome 2025, preoccupied with the fraudulent astrologers sent on New Year’s Eve to fill our television screens and bewitch the people with illusions and lies. People live in the hope of fulfilling such wishful thinking, waiting for a miracle from the sky, content only with prayers for the removal of the nation’s suffering. They do not bother asking themselves what they have to offer the nation to revive it and put it back on track at the leading edge of knowledge in this technological age for the benefit of humanity, as their ancestors did. Sadly, they have nothing but humiliation, while their rulers offer nothing but shame and disgrace.

The Arab and Muslim nation has a rich cultural heritage but it has surrendered to injustice and tyranny as if both are inevitable and must be accepted. People sit and watch without thinking as the world passes them by, satisfied with the worldly life and watching Muslims being massacred in the East and West, with the support and endorsement of the Muslim rulers. They claim to be weak and unable to confront the tyrants, despite possessing the numbers, strength and capabilities across a vast geographical area.

It is an oblivious nation that has submitted, by its own will, as it sits idly watching its enemies ganging up on it from every side, even opening their arms and countries to them. Its people have grown content with repeating the noble verse “Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs” without actually understanding its meaning. This does not apply to those who are weak and have accepted humiliation and disgrace and enjoy their status. It applies to the oppressed who seek to live in dignity and pride, even if they are few. Only then does God intervene and grant them victory, as the verse says, “How many times has a small force vanquished a mighty army by the Will of Allah?” This was demonstrated in Syria recently, where a small group of believers managed to overthrow the brutal tyrant Bashar Al-Assad and his regime that lasted 54 years.

These words are painful and there is much to be said. Bullets are raining down on a wounded nation and no one is treating its wounds.

So, will the new year 2025 bring us anything really new? Or will we be left to muddle our way through historic conflicts? The Palestinian cause for freedom and justice has been passed from generation to generation. Will 2025 be the year in which we all do something to help bring it to a satisfactory close with the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea?

Colonialism, no matter how long it lasts, is destined to disappear, and the settler-colonial state of Israel is no different. While injustice grows and oppression spreads, the fate of the oppressors is self-destruction. The important thing is that we work towards this end to lift our despair and restore pride to the heart of the nation.