As many of us are privileged enough to enjoy the holiday season peacefully, we may forget that there are so many innocent civilians suffering around the world because of war, famine, natural disasters, and other problems outside of their control. Here, we will be focusing on Palestine and Sudan, two countries currently experiencing genocide. While these few following paragraphs could never be fully representative of the complex histories and sociopolitical contexts causing these conflicts, hopefully they can offer a look into what’s going on. 

Palestine

While the Palestinian genocide is not a mere conflict that began two years ago, having stemmed from a dispute that dates back over a century, it has been featured far more in mainstream news since late 2023 (though said attention has been waning). Even when only accounting for the casualties since October 7th, 2023, numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry report that nearly 70,000 Palestinians have been killed, with over 170,000 seriously injured—and some say that these estimates may be underrepresenting the true impact of the genocide.  

Despite the Trump Administration claiming to have brokered a ceasefire deal with Israeli prime minister Netanyahu (which he announced at the end of September), Israel has continually violated the agreement, carrying out airstrikes and other attacks. As of late November, one of the stages in Trump’s plan is to recruit international support to demilitarize the Gaza Strip, but the United States has struggled to recruit forces in order to create a stabilizing force that will disarm resistance.

Approximately 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank. While Palestine has gathered great international support over the past few years, Israel’s government disputes the claims of countries that consider their settlements illegal. They purport that Israeli settlements are justified and rooted in historical rights, mentioning tragedies like the Holocaust to justify enforcing a Jewish ethnostate as “the need for a safe haven” (the origin of Zionism as an ideology). 

Sudan 

A civil war erupted in Sudan back in April 2023 after a power struggle between two rival factions of the Sudanese military powers: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Since this conflict began, over 12 million people have been forcibly displaced, making this the world’s largest displacement crisis according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

While an investigation by the United Nations was inconclusive in determining whether or not the violent actions of these militarized forces were representative of ethnic cleansing, the then-US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken concluded in January 2025 that “members of the RSF and allied militias had committed genocide in Sudan” after determining that the Rapid Support Forces had “targeted fleeing civilians, [murdered] innocent people escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies.” 

More recently, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan rejected a ceasefire proposal set by Trump and other US-led mediators, known as the Quad (which includes the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia), calling the plan unacceptable and claiming that the ideators hold a biased viewpoint—given the United States’ strong relationships with Saudi Arabia especially).

With hundreds of refugees being killed by paramilitary forces and mercenary factions, as well as by malnutrition and famine, the conflict has long since escalated into a humanitarian crisis; worst of all, it’s one that doesn’t seem to be catching the attention of many mainstream news sources.

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Over the past two years, we have seen political conflicts and genocide tear through these communities at an unprecedented scale. While these tragedies are not new by any means, nor have they only been taking place within these past few years, the normalization of perceiving these countries as “war-torn” and conflict-prone by nature only serves to further dehumanize the people living through these displacements and wars, those who are suffering the most. As much as the holiday season may bring comfort to some of us, we cannot use this time as an excuse to ignore or forget the atrocities being committed in countries like Sudan and Palestine.