Though a cease-fire was called between the people of Israel and Palestine at the end of last year, it was only a matter of time before something set someone off and the conflict resumed. It is a seemingly endless war, sparked decades ago by the colonization of Palestinian lands by Israeli forces. Today, it remains, fueled further by political and religious tensions. Whenever the two governments manage to make peace, something happens and they begin shooting at each other again.
This time, it involved Palestinian militants firing mortars and rockets at Israeli cities. Of course, Palestine doesn't have what one would call the most sophisticated of weaponry, and only one of the rockets fired even managed to make it across the border into Israel and hit no populated areas. No one was hurt, but Israel responded with another round of airstrikes from their vastly superior military planes.
So what set them off this time? The death of a Palestinian prisoner being held in prison by Israel. Following the man’s death, the Palestinian government told Israel that they needed to be held responsible for the death and asked the Palestinian people to protest. The protests got violent and ended in the death of a few of the protesters. This encouraged militants to act and some got it into their heads to resume shooting at their neighbors.
This situation has been going on for ages and during that time people have naturally chosen sides. The U.S. government has traditionally backed Israel and their occupation of Palestine. Israel makes claims that the Palestinians are terrorists and dislikes the presence of Islam that seems to be spreading into their country. Palestinians bounce back and forth between trying to achieve a peaceful solution and losing their patience and resorting to violence.
The debate and conflict ranges all over the world, wherever Jewish or Palestinian people live, including here in the U.S. But not every person is hot or cold. Some feel that Israel needs to end their occupation, that this is the only way to stop the violence for good, promoting peace and acceptance for both sides.
In my opinion, occupation is occupation and what Israel does to Palestine is little different from what the U.S. did to Native Americans during our own conquest. Palestine should be its own state, though the means by which that comes about needs to be peaceful. There can be no peace in a people who live under the rule of an occupying state.
Israel-Palestine flag graphic courtesy of Yellowblood via Wikicommons
