In 2024, humanity has been stained by genocide in Gaza, war, and the climate crisis. And while signs of hope persist, the future is bleak, says Owen Jones.

Owen Jones, 31 Dec, 2024

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The West’s moral claims — used to justify its global hegemony — were buried in the rubble of Gaza, alongside countless, and uncounted, thousands of Palestinians, writes Owen Jones [photo credit: Getty Images]

For those who fear that our species is taking a gruesome wrong turn, 2024 was a year which offered no shortage of evidence.

Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza, of course, is the most hideous case study.

Much of the world never took seriously the so-called ‘rules-based order’, noting how the world is rigged in favour of the US and former European colonisers, with the recent examples of the Iraq war or indeed Israel before October 7 underlining how the West picks and chooses international law as it deems convenient.

But witnessing the world’s first live-streamed genocide, armed and facilitated by the US and its allies, shocked even those who had few existing illusions.

The West’s moral claims — used to justify its global hegemony — were buried in the rubble of Gaza, alongside countless, and uncounted, thousands of Palestinians.

2024 left those who facilitated — or denied — one of the worst crimes of our age with nowhere to hide.

In January, South Africa’s case alleging genocide was heard at the International Court of Justice: presenting the devastating evidence, Irish lawyer Blinne Ni Gralaigh declared this was “the first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real-time in the desperate, so far vain hope that the world might do something.”

The ICJ issued provisional ordersdemanding Israel refrain from acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, not least ensuring the provision of humanitarian aid, which were grievously flouted.

In May, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and in November, they were finally issued.

By the end of the year, a consensus had been forged that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, from academics specialising in genocide such as Professor Omer Bartov to Amnesty International in a report issued in December.

Israel committed some of the most depraved atrocities imaginable on a daily basis in a tiny strip of land already largely reduced to apocalyptic ruin when the year began.

Most infrastructure was left severely damaged or destroyed. Almost every school was attacked, some repeatedly, like the al-Tabin school in August in which over 100 Palestinians were killed. Gaza’s hospitals were violently dismantled, with the flagship Al-Shifa hospital left in ruins in April.

Children were routinely butchered by the Israeli army, like 5-year-old Hind Rajab, slaughtered in her car alongside her relatives, including her four cousins, after phoning the Red Crescent begging for help: the paramedics sent to save her were slaughtered by the Israeli military, too.

The Israeli military systematically prevented aid from getting in, with two US government agencies concluding by April that this was deliberate. Joe Biden declared an Israeli assault on Rafah was a red line Israel must not cross: after it was subjected to military assault, no action was taken.

Famine spread throughout Gaza. Babies were freezing to death by the end of the year. The official death toll — more than 45,000 — was widely accepted as a drastic undercount, with thousands missing under rubble and deaths from indirect causes not included, and the counting system imploding along with Gaza’s healthcare system. Estimates of the real death toll varied: three public health experts estimated 186,000 in the Lancet medical journal in July.

Despite most of the world repulsed by this genocidal mayhem in Gaza, Israel retained the support of the world’s only superpower, ensuring it enjoyed impunity.

Pogroms escalated in the West Bank, while Israel’s butchery extended to Lebanon, and it invaded Syria. The Israeli leadership became consumed with triumphalism, with Hamas leaders killed, not least Yahya Sinwar in October, and Hezbollah left decimated by exploding pagers in September and the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah.

The West’s facilitation of Israel’s barbarism underlined its moral collapse, but there were other symptoms, not least a growing right-wing authoritarian wave. Donald Trump’s election underlined that his 2016 victory was not an aberration, but an epochal shift. His victorious incarnation was more extreme and vengeful, leaving question marks over US democracy.

From Austria — where the far-right Freedom Party topped the polls — to the United Kingdom — where right-wing populist Nigel Farage’s Reform surged — the trend is clear. The fragility of ‘centrism’was underlined by the disintegration of Emmanuel Macron in France, the collapse of Germany’s government, and elections in Britain.

There, the ruling Conservatives imploded amidst scandal, collapsing public services and plummeting living standards, but Keir Starmer’s Labour party secured little more than a third of the vote. By the end of the year, an absence of vision for a crisis-ridden country left the Labour leader with the worst ratings of any prime minister recorded at this point into their rule.

There were moments of hope: the lightning removal of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in Syria led to jubilation there, even though the nation’s future is far from certain or stable.

India’s Hindu nationalist government suffered a setback in elections, weakening its rule. But the overall picture was bleak. The war in Ukraine remained a hideous meat grinder, with a Russian victory appearing ever likelier. And climate scientists repeatedly revealed data underlining the existential menace facing humanity, with one report in October warning “We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster.” 

War, genocide, a right-wing surge and looming existential crisis: the vital signs of humanity are not good. But at the same time, growing numbers have become increasingly stripped of their illusions, a precondition for change.

Gaza has been the greatest catalyst, leaving growing numbers to ask how their leaders could facilitate such a grotesque crime, and mainstream media outlets’ failure to accurately report on such an abomination exposed.

In Britain’s elections, the surge of the Green Party and anti-genocide independent candidates spoke to this politicisation. Whether enough will develop to offer a counterweight to the terrifying direction of travel is another question. There are no guarantees, and 2025 will reveal whether there are new signs of hope — or whether humanity’s descent into the abyss remains the norm.

Owen Jones is a British journalist, columnist, and political activist. He is the author of Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class and The Establishment – And How They Get Away With It. 

Follow him on X: @OwenJones84