You are hungry all the time because the Israeli blockade does not allow enough food to get in to feed Gaza City. There are not enough medical supplies or hospital beds to meet the city’s needs. You owned an olive grove, one that had been in your family for generations, but it was taken from you when the Israelis built a wall around Gaza. You are trapped.

You cannot leave to find a better life because you are a prisoner in your own land. Your democratically elected government has been ignored by the rest of the world. You are a no one. You have no rights, no avenue for protest. It is not hard to understand why some Palestinians would turn to Hamas in their desperation. Condemnable, but understandable.

When the Israelis respond to your neighbor’s rockets, they bomb your house, your school, the U.N. aid station or an apartment complex. They kill thousands and you pray for the bombing to stop. Your life is misery and there is nothing you can do. Palestine is an occupied land.

Any attempt to disguise criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic is dishonest. You can oppose the actions of Israel without being anti-Semitic. If there is ever to be peace, the Israelis must allow Palestine to control its own destiny. Israel must end the occupation or there can never be peace.

Scott Kelber

social relations and policy freshman