faces of palestinians

not a single day has gone by since my return from palestine some five months ago that i have not missed the arid landscape and vibrant people, reflected on some aspect of my experience, or thought about the new friends i created during my brief stay there. the intensity of the last nine days and the war on gaza have brought so much to the surface that i'm not certain how to process it all. one thing is for certain, however, and that is the fact that each time the statistics roll in from the various news outlets, i see the faces of the palestinians i encountered last summer and wonder if my friends are safe.
each number, whether cited as hamas or civilian, is another human being. somehow, the majority of the world seems to be missing that fact.

as a middle school humanities teacher, i spend my days working with my students to unravel the complexities of conflict and to view history and current events through multiple perspectives. students quickly discern for themselves that the best way to escalate hate and justify one's actions is to create the "other" by vilifying and dehumanizing one's opponent. over time, each marginalized group seems to manage to overcome this demonization, though not without struggle and revolution of some sort. today, much of the world accepts the notion that palestinians qualify as the other: they are the aggressors; they are the terrorists; they, in fact, have brought the israeli airstrikes and ground invasion upon themselves. i, however, cannot swallow this misconception, this blatant lie.

each time the number of dead in gaza is reported as if it is a matter of no consequence, i burn with rage on the inside. while six weeks in palestine does not make me an expert on the situation, i can speak from my experience to say that i have looked into the curious, hopeful eyes of palestinian children playing among the rubble and in polluted streets of refugee camps to find that they are simply children with big hearts and impressionable minds, struggling to find happiness in each day and live a life of normalcy, as much as that is possible in their given circumstances. i have met men who have been imprisoned without charges or shot by israeli soldiers who write painfully beautiful poetry and organize students to express themselves without violence. i have met highly educated intellectuals working to secure human rights when they could be living a life of relative ease anywhere else in the world. while members of hamas are very real, we need to pause and reflect on the fact that they are a small faction of the palestinian people. the world needs to remember that gaza contains 1.5 million fellow human beings -- a half a million of whom are children -- who have been subjected to inhumane conditions yet somehow manage to persevere.