Hundreds of Palestinians have lost their lives in the past few days.
Men, women, and children have died. Many of those who died were not fighters. They were schoolchildren. They were mothers. They were fathers. They were sisters and brothers and best friends. They were in love. They were loved. They had lives that were ended by this violence.
Two young girls, two sisters, the oldest aged eleven, were killed. No matter what you believe about the politics of this conflict in the middle east, no one with a heart and soul can say that is right.
Israel has always claimed to be on the right side of things. In the United States, we have always heard that Israel is on the right side of the conflict. Our country has supported Israel's claim on the Palestinian homeland. Our country has ignored the human rights of hundreds of thousands of people.
Palestinian militants have committed inexcusable atrocities in the name of their home and their right not to be displaced by Israel. But Israeli forces have done unthinkably horrible things in the name of the homeland they claim based on history, a place already home to an entire population of people when the Jewish immigrants poured in.
It's not about who has been right and wrong in history, though, because there are a thousand ways to decide that. It's about who is right and wrong today. It's about the country that has American support, the country that the Western media will show over and over again in a positive light. It's about Israel's decision to sacrifice the lives of innocent Palestinians because of what they want.
And yet, our media will never see it that way. Our media will always glorify the Israeli cause. I am not condoning anything that the Palestinians has done that has cost innocent lives in their effort to reclaim their home; I am simply condemning Israeli actions today. Condemning is not a strong enough word, though. I have cried for the lives lost in Gaza these past few days, and for the lives that will be lost as Israel says it will not step down.
And still, the headline on Fox News blames the Palestinians for retaliating, rather than addressing Israel's murder of civilians. Fox News chooses to focus on the handful of Israelis who have died. As regrettable as those deaths are, and believe me, they sadden me greatly, the American media chooses to vilify Palestine rather than focus on the hundreds of lives lost due to Israeli attacks. It has always been this way.
It is time to forget the past. It is time to stop giving Israel a free pass because America believes that Israel has been wronged in the past, or because our media and mainstream society is prejudiced against Muslims. It is time to see people as people and not political entities. People are people everywhere, and in Gaza, innocent people are dying because of the Israeli government.