The suffering of the Palestinian people, which began with the Nakba and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, reached brand new depths in the past 14 months.  More than 46,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and more than 110,000 injured in Israel’s continuing genocide in Gaza. Tens of thousands of others are missing, arbitrarily detained, or known to be buried under the rubble of their destroyed homes. Israel’s relentless attacks have not spared homes, schools, and even hospitals in the besieged Strip. Hundreds of thousands of survivors, pushed out of their homes and into makeshift tents in so-called “safe zones”, are facing indiscriminate air strikes, daily massacres, disease outbreaks, hunger and harsh winter conditions with no end in sight to their misery. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are also under attack from Israeli forces and lack most basic rights and freedoms.

Palestinians document the atrocities committed against their people by Israel one by one and share them with the world in real-time for everyone to see. South Africa has launched a genocide case against Israel at the World Court, backed by a large variety of countries including Mexico, Brazil and Turkiye. The ICC has also taken action against Israel, issuing arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. The global public is also clear in its support for Palestinians, with tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protests, vigils and sit-ins held across the world, attracting support from millions of people from all walks of life, since the beginning of the genocide in October of 2023.

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Despite all this, however, Israel appears able to continue its crimes openly and with impunity. This is because its Western supporters and benefactors, especially the United States, turn a blind eye to all of Israel’s excesses, and refuse to acknowledge – let alone punish – its blatant violations of international law.

Washington particularly, as the main supplier of arms, bombs and other military equipment to Israel, has not done anything to help end the genocide in the past 14 months. On the contrary, it has done everything in its power to shield Israel from accountability. For example, it has used its veto power four times, most recently on November 20, to prevent the UN Security Council from passing a resolution demanding a ceasefire. It also voted against the UN General Assembly resolution, supported by 154 member states, calling for an immediate end to Israel’s war on Gaza. It is also attempting to punish the ICC for issuing warrants against Israeli leaders, with the House of Representatives passing a bill to sanction the court.

As such, it seems as long as the US military, political and financial support for Israel continues, there is nothing supporters of Palestine can do to bring the suffering of the Palestinian people to an end or ensure that their basic human rights are respected.

Thankfully, however, the past 14 months were not marked only by losses and disappointment. Supporters of Palestine have also scored important political, legal and electoral victories in this time. Most importantly, despite the world’s inability to put an end to Israel’s genocide and lawless occupation, the Palestinian cause has more support in the global public square today than ever before. Israel is becoming a pariah. And this matters.

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Indeed, even in America, where politicians seem committed to protecting Israel at any cost, people have regularly taken to the streets to demand an end to the brutal war on Gaza’s population. American universities, from coast to coast, have been taken over by Gaza solidarity encampments. While most of these protests were crushed with force with many of their participants severely punished, they still managed to show the world that American people do not support genocide. They also made American people pay attention to what their country is funding in Gaza and helped shift the public opinion against the genocide.

In Western Europe, another traditional support base of Israel, Palestine has also started receiving unprecedented support at both official and grassroots levels.

Sure, the European dependence on the US and Israel’s historic ties to and extensive lobbying investment in most European nations, means official support for Israel’s war is still strong on the continent.

The German government, for example, has been unwavering in its support for Israel since the very beginning of the genocide, and to this day supports and defends all actions of the Netanyahu government.

But pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide voices gained significant prominence across Europe’s political, legal, media, entertainment and economic sectors, as well as in unions, academia and among students, gradually moving several European governments and leading institutions to stand for international law and Palestinian human rights.

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According to the data gathered by the European Palestinian Information Center (EPAL), there have been more than 26,000 demonstrations and other activities in support of Palestinian rights in 619 cities across 20 European countries during the first year of the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza.

In response to this growing call for justice in Palestine coming from the European public, European governments are starting to slowly show support for the struggle. Belgium, Ireland and Spain officially sided with South Africa in the genocide case against Israel. Spain and Ireland also recognised the Palestinian state, bringing the number of EU nations to do so to 10. French President Emmanuel Macron has called for an arms export halt and the UK has suspended some licences. Ireland has been so vocal in its condemnation of the genocide that Israel has recently decided to close its embassy in the country.

In electoral politics, despite the over all rise of the right and obvious successes of right-wing parties in various elections, supporters of Palestine have also made significant gains across several European countries in the past year.

The French national elections held in mid-2024, for example, saw the left-wing France Unbowed, whose leader Jean-Luc Melenchon played a key role in organising pro-Palestine demonstrations in the country, emerge victorious. The pro-Palestinian party also secured 11 seats in the European Parliament.

Pro-Palestine voices also made important gains in the European Parliamentary elections. Sweden’s Left Party, for example, which enjoys strong support from Sweden’s Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim minorities due to its active advocacy for Palestine, gained two seats. Denmark also elected several vocally pro-Palestine representatives.

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In the United Kingdom, where weekly demonstrations calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the occupation attracted tens of thousands of people, five pro-Palestinian candidates – including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn – won seats in last year’s parliamentary elections. These MPs later formed a parliamentary grouping dubbed “Independence Alliance” and started pressuring Keir Starmer’s Labour government to support a ceasefire in Gaza and condemn Israel’s war crimes.

In Austria, pro-Palestine candidates participated in the September national election under the name “Gaza list: Voices against genocide” after securing enough endorsements to get their names on the ballot in seven out of nine states. They not only managed to bring attention to the genocide in Gaza within the Austrian political conversation, but actually secured nearly  20,000 votes in the election, showing the growing strength of pro-Palestinian voices in the traditionally pro-Israel nation.

Those fighting for justice in Palestine also secured important legal victories in the past year.

In Italy, supporters of Palestinian rights won a case in the Supreme Court of Appeal against the Italian state television network, “Rai”, which had incorrectly referred to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in a news bulletin. The judge ruled that Rai must publicly correct its mistake in a subsequent bulletin, stating that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel.

Meanwhile, anti-genocide activists filed a lawsuit against the Dutch government to halt arms exports to Israel in light of its conduct in Gaza. The Dutch state television aired the court proceedings live, which raised significant awareness among the Dutch public about the country’s role in facilitating Israel’s genocidal war.

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Another prominent legal action in support of Palestine was the cases filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation, established in Belgium last September, at the ICC and several local courts against Israeli soldiers who took part in the Gaza genocide.

The foundation, named after the six-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli tank fire in Gaza as she was stuck in a car filled with the dead bodies of her relatives, sent to the ICC a list containing the names of a thousand Israeli soldiers suspected of taking part in war crimes in the besieged Strip. The foundation collected evidence against the accused Israeli soldiers through various means, including their personal social media pages, where they boasted about committing crimes against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

The foundation has also been tracking the movements of Israeli soldiers in foreign countries and filing cases against them in local courts. It located and filed complaints against suspected war criminals vacationing in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Belgium, the Netherlands, Serbia, Ireland, Cyprus and most recently Sweden. The actions of the foundation pushed Israel to instruct its soldiers to tread carefully when planning vacations abroad, and strengthened its international pariah status.

Meanwhile, The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement also had significant success in curtailing support for Israel in the past year.

According to a Reuters analysis published in November, several of Europe’s biggest financial firms have reduced their links to Israeli companies or those with ties to the country, due to pressures from activists and governments to end the war in Gaza. According to UN Trade and Development data, overall foreign direct investment into Israel fell by 29 percent in 2023 to its lowest since 2016.

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In short, while the global community has not yet been successful in bringing an end to Israel’s crimes, relentless advocacy by activists from around the world has brought us closer than ever to achieving justice for the Palestinian people. Israel’s genocide in Gaza, committed in plain sight and documented in great detail, has greatly changed public perceptions of the Israel-Palestine conflict around the world. Even if the US does not seem any closer to abandoning its support for the settler colony, the international opinion is rapidly shifting in favour of Palestine.

The tide is undoubtedly changing, but the fight is far from over. It is imperative that Palestinians and their supporters continue exposing the truth about Israel’s war crimes, illegal occupation, and ethnic cleansing operations, until Palestine is free and Israel has been held accountable for the many crimes it committed and continues to commit against the long-suffering Palestinian people.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.