An opinion piece about the Israel-Palestinian dispute

1. The Israel-Palestine dispute is one many describe as conflicting. There is nothing
conflicting about the killing of Palestinian people and nothing conflicting about illegal occupation.
March 30th marked 7 weeks of protests with Palestinians demanding the right to return
to their ancestral homeland. On the 14th of May, 60 Palestinians were killed during a protest of
the opening of the U.S embassy at the Israel Gaza border that also commemorates Nakba, or
Disaster, the day the state of Israel was established on May 15, 1948. The youngest victim,
Laila Anwar al-Ghandour, was only 8 months old.
The Palestinian people have suffered for decades since the Israeli Declaration of
Independence in 1948. In 1967 the Israeli military occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. In 1980 Israel annexed East Jerusalem. Both occupation and annexation are illegal
according to international law. The Palestinian people have been forced to abandon their
ancestral homeland and watch as their homes are destroyed to make way for illegal Israeli
settlements. Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories are treated like second class citizens,
with little to no rights, starving and dying while the Israeli people build luxury condos on land that
does not belong to them. Worst of all they are forced watch their fellow people die in the hands
of Israeli soldiers. Last month, the Israeli Defence Force shot an astonishing 773 Palestinians
who were peacefully protesting at the Gaza border killing 17 of them.
A fun hypothetical question. What if I came to your house and said “My grandparents
used to live here so now it belongs to me” then threw you out of the neighbourhood and fenced
you in an alley with no way in or out, then if you ever approached the fence, I’d shoot you in the
head? This is the reality of the situation.
Yet the worst part is despite the Palestinians dying in droves, the rest of the world
remains silent. 60 people have died during a peaceful protest, gunned down by Israeli snipers
yet there has been no international condemnation. Where is the outcry from the Western liberals
who pride themselves in upholding liberty and equality? Where is the U.S intervention with the
so-called responsibility to protect doctrine? Why has the U.N still not taken any action over the
clearly illegal use of live ammunition on peaceful protesters? The silence is deafening.
This comes as no surprise however especially when reading the comments of certain
Western leaders. Blaming “both sides” for the violence is a very common rhetoric when
discussing the the conflict between Israel and Palestine. U.S president Trump often claims that
the deaths are caused by “clashes” and “confrontations” when the reality is one side has rockets
and rifles while the other side has slingshots and burning kites. One side is doing the killing and
other is doing the dying. Jared Kushner during the opening of the U.S embassy in Jerusalem
claimed that “those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the situation”.
Provoking violence? Palestinian children aren’t throwing themselves onto Israeli bullets.
Now you might point out that there have been multiple attempts to establish a peace
process and talks always end up failing. The reason it never works is that there is too much
focus on the extremist group Hamas, their acts of terror, both sides and no focus on the world's

2. longest illegal military occupation. Until we recognize that occupation is the root of the problem
there will be no peace, and no process.