From the other side of the Atlantic, Americans often attempt to render the complex Israeli-Palestinian conflict black and white. We pit hawks against doves, Islamists against Zionists, aggressors against oppressed, Israel against Palestine, dangerous divisions which lead us to label erroneously good people as evil simply because they fall on the wrong side of a literal line in the sand. When we quickly take a side, we dehumanize innocent people.
When you stand a stone’s throw from the Gaza Strip, it becomes impossible to vilify every single person that lives on the other side of the colossal wall. Likewise, when you talk to those closest to the situation — who hear the rockets fired from hospitals and know the schools terrorists use for cover — you see that there are good people on both sides of that wall, terrorized by those with no regard for their existence.
The good and innocent people living within every political boundary complicate our justification of violence in the Middle East. While the desire to simplify the war, to partition good and bad using political boundaries, is understandable, it is an urge which must be fought, by taking time to conduct careful research and engagement with diverse perspectives before forming an opinion. For it is the good and the innocent in all nations whom we must uphold.