Markus Villa

Every American I know who has spent time in Palestine comes back angry, disgusted and traumatized. I’ve yet to meet someone who says “it’s not that bad. It’s their fault and they deserve it”. I’ve met many who went believing Israel were the good guys and Palestinians screwed themselves over only to come back with an entirely disgusted view of Israel. I came back in a state of shock. I witnessed in real life things I had only read about in history books. Things I never believed a government could do in modern times. I had a neutral view of Israel prior to my trip. During my trip I was extremely skeptical and even pissed off several Palestinians with my lines of questioning. When I came back to the states and began processing everything… I couldn’t turn on the lights or get myself out of bed for a week. What I saw was unimaginable. It was a cruelty aimed at a group of generous and warm people with a very very clear intent- to get rid of them. And I couldn’t believe the group doing it to these people had it done to them not long ago. They took similar tactics and weaponized them against others. That is what I saw and I can’t unsee it. The children in the schools would stop me and beg me to come home and tell America to stop. They know it’s us allowing this abuse. Myself and everyone I know comes back disgusted with Israel. And many of us weren’t even in Gaza witnessing war. Everyday normal life for Palestinians is cruel and it’s 100% controlled by Israel. And despite what we’ve been spoon fed our whole lives, it’s not done because the Palestinians are violent and dangerous, it’s done to rid the region of them. To make their lives so miserable they either leave or violently rise up giving Israel an excuse to take more land. And the Israelis are not shy about this when you speak to them. Some might couch it with statements like “well we tried peace but they didn’t accept it”. It doesn’t matter how they phrase it, they still end up in the same place which is “they can’t stay” and “we want them gone”.