For a long time, many people in the Western world did not pay any attention to the problems arising from the occupation of Palestine. The cast would be in the news for a day or two every year or so, and then it would start again. It was too “complicated,” the experts on both sides were too passionate. So many chose to remain neutral. Many more believed the slanders against the Palestinian people.
However, the scale and severity of the brutality that has characterized the conflict over the past six months has put an end to widespread apathy towards the suffering of the Palestinian people. The widespread media coverage, thanks to the fearless reporting of organizations such as Al Jazeera and Palestinian journalists on the ground, has opened people’s eyes to the reality that the people of Gaza and the rest of Palestine have suffered for generations.
At Action For Humanity, one of the leading NGOs working in Gaza and influencing policymakers in the UK, we commissioned a survey from YouGov and found that 56 percent of Brits now support a halt to arms exports to Israel are. Only 17 percent are against it, the rest are unsure.
This is huge. We have been surveying the public about conflicts like Syria and Yemen for years, and never before have the British public not only been so aware of a conflict, but felt so passionate about it.
Additionally, when asked, 59 percent of respondents said they felt Israel was committing human rights abuses in Gaza – nearly three in five people and only 12 percent felt this was not the case.
And it’s worth noting that this survey was conducted before the April 1 murder of World Central Kitchen aid workers – an atrocity that horrified the world, even the governments of Britain and the United States. Because of the widespread condemnation of this event, we now believe that the number of people who realize the atrocities are being committed and want nothing to do with it is higher.
Other YouGov polls have shown that the longer this war on Gaza goes on, the more people are likely to support a ceasefire (from 59 percent in November to 66 percent in February) and more likely to think that the attack on Gaza is not justified (by 44 percent in November to 45 percent in February) and are more likely to want peace talks (61 percent in November to 66 percent in February).
And this is a pattern we see across the Western world. In the United States, Israel’s biggest supporter on the world stage, not only is the government in the White House struggling to justify the rising civilian death toll, but the public is also showing disapproval. A CBS/YouGov poll found that in October 47 percent – almost half – of the US supported supplying arms to Israel, this month the number has fallen to just 32 percent – less than a third, and support for a ceasefire is growing.
We believe this to be the case throughout the West, and now that the vast majority of the Western public is becoming increasingly aware of the crimes against humanity being committed in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, even more people are completely horrified. And even those who once felt the enormous number of civilian deaths in Gaza were right and increasingly realized that nothing on this earth can justify what is happening.
Unfortunately, politicians in Western governments are not at all in tune with the mood of their people. This is not only morally reprehensible, but also politically short-sighted.
The year 2024 has been dubbed “the year of elections.” At least 49 percent of the world’s population will vote at some point this year. Politicians who are unaware that their public wants them to stop aiding and abetting human rights abuses in Gaza face electoral defeat – even if they refuse to face their conscience.
Here in the UK, too, the Labor Party, which many believe will form the next government, is behind the growing public demand to stop arming Israel – despite our polling showing a huge 71 per cent of those who vote Labour wanted to vote Labor in the UK on December 17, 2019. At the next election we believe that the UK government should stop funding Israel.
For decades, Western states were able to support abuses against Palestinians with impunity because the public was unaware of the problem – because people paid no attention to what was happening and bought into lies. This is now over, and the terrible way Israel waged its war on Gaza is the reason why. Humanity, in all its forms and everywhere, is fundamentally good. Most people fundamentally believe in peace and justice. They know it’s wrong to murder innocent people. Now that the world is turning its attention to Gaza, everyone can see what an unnatural, horrific reality the Palestinians are forced to endure, and they want no more of it.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.