• Key moments that define 2024 can lead one to hope after a period of agony.
• From the ongoing Gaza genocide, to its expansion into Lebanon to the overthrow of Sheikh Hassina & Bashar Al Assad, we find anticipation for good things to come.
As the Gaza genocide continued, garnering a death rate of more than 45,000 people, according to the severely ruptured and destroyed Gaza health ministry, with actual numbers numbers likely 4 to 5 times higher, Israel expanded its genocide into Lebanon, raising the death rate there to over 3000 people.
Although a ceasefire had been called on the northern Israeli front with Lebanon, it has been violated countless times, with now Israeli media suggesting the Israeli army may stay in Lebanon beyond its 60 day period, potentially making them long-time occupiers.
In Gaza, Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl, was killed by an Israeli tank shell while on the phone with her mother and Red Crescent aid workers in her final moments, leading to one of two active US airmen to leave military service and become a conscientious objector over Washington’s support for Israel’s war, who said Rajab’s killing marked a turning point for him.
Rajab’s mother, Wissam Hamada, said: “It’s the most difficult feeling in the world to hear my daughter ask me to go get her when I can’t reach her.
“My sweetheart, I swear, I couldn’t reach you. Forgive me, sweetheart.”
The Bangladesh uprising
In Bangladesh, in what was seen as an iconic moment in the nation’s history, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was removed from power in less than two months after 15 years in charge.
Her legacy was marred with brutality, torture, and massacres, including the massacres of at least 1500 people in 2024 who were involved in protests against the regime.
For the Bangladeshi people who were subjected to an oppressive constitution and prisons such as the infamous Aynaghor torture prison, the removal of Hasina was seen as pivotal to getting their voices heard and securing their freedom.
Bangladesh now has an interim government, led by Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammed Yunus, who withdrew a ban on the country’s largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, paving the way for a return to religious freedom for Muslim communities and institutions.
The Syrian revolution
After more than 50 years of Baathist rule and 24 years of Bashar al-Assad’s time in power, the Syrian people have, for the first time, risen successfully and completely overhauled the country’s system, the regime in charge.
In what was deemed a lightning offensive that took both analysts and global powers by surprise, Bashar Al Assad fled to Moscow, with rebels successfully capturing Damascus.
The torture and oppression of the Bashar regime reached the surface of attention after the collapse of the regime, with notorious prisons such as the Sadnaya prison and mass graves discovered and exposed.
The complicity and incapability of the international system to stop the atrocities in Syria was again exposed, with numerous high-ranking politicians and powers questioned for not doing more.
We must have hope for 2025
2025 should be a year of hope, with two nations in 2024 able to secure their freedom; it should motivate us and grant us an aspiration to aid in the freedom of people elsewhere.
Very few people outside of the rebel-held provinces in Syria knew or expected the Bashar regime, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 600,000 people, to fall in a matter of less than two weeks, as did many few expected long-time dictator Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh to fall in less than two months.
2024 has shown us that even in the midst of hopelessness, the setting of an almost complete defeat with what can be deemed an impossible wall to climb to reach victory, victory can well be attainable.
