In 2025, I cannot think of a situation more straightforward or dire than Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine. For Americans still wrestling over the “complexity” of the Palestinian plight, hindsight offers us examples of indisputable right vs. wrong, oppressed vs. oppressor, colonized vs. colonizer—chattel slavery, Native American genocide, South African apartheid, and the Holocaust immediately spring to mind. When looking back, we know these things to be wrong (well, hopefully you do). But what about this moment, when looking around at the here and now?

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed nearly 62,000 Palestinian children, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, wives, husbands, and friends—more, when factoring in the untold decomposing bodies buried under the 50 million tonnes of rubble that the IDF left behind following their wake of total destruction. Roughly 111,700 Palestinians have been wounded to date. An estimated 85,000 tonnes of bombs, largely supplied and funded by US taxpayer dollars, have been dropped on an area less than one-third the size of Los Angeles, flattening the city of Gaza—one of the most densely populated areas in the world—to the tune of $53 billion in damages. Globally, Gaza now has the most child amputees per captia, with over 1,000 children missing one or both legs.

So why are we still calling a genocide a war? And why are Americans still so unsure where they stand on Israel? I don’t believe they are apathetic or apolitical. When pressed on Russia, China, or North Korea, Americans are quite confident in their strong opinions (Crushing policies! Evil dictators!) on the matter. Is Israel not actively committing war crimes? Is it not currently guilty of apartheid? Of genocide? Of operating an open-air prison, barring Gazans from coming or going, from potable water?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the remote-control-machine-gun-operated barbed-wire wall, Israelis are entitled to roam borders freely. They are entitled to abundant food, reliable electricity, and clean water access. They sleep safe and sound under the protection of Israel’s iron dome defense system. It's wildly incongruent; the Palestinian plight could not be more back or white. But with so much propaganda fueling “balanced” analysis—foregoing truth—things become gray. Israel gets framed as a sympathetic colonizer, a geographically significant oppressor, a close ally and friend of the US. In defending itself, Palestine attacks these perceptions. And if there's one thing Americans have little tolerance for, it's an attack on their beliefs.

Perhaps Americans conflate Israeli culture with Palestinian culture, assuming Israel is far older and more embedded than the reality. For the state of Israel is only 76 years old, established on May 14, 1948. Prior to that, Israeli culture (not to be confused with Jewish culture) did not exist. Israeli food did not exist, for example. It never has. What many today accept as Israeli dishes are in fact Palestinian. Historically speaking, one could make the case for a Jewish-Palestinian dish. But labeling it “Israeli” is not only historically inaccurate, it's cultural appropriation. It’s erasure. Palestinian author Jamal Kanj writes:

Authentic culture evolves organically over generations. However, Israel’s top-down approach to culture lacks genuine identifying characteristics. Throughout its history, Israel has either fabricated, annexed, or reconstructed both surface and deep cultural elements through falsehoods, myths, and fables. Unlike the conventional development of cultures, Israeli surface culture came prepackaged—American fast-food style—by appropriating those very elements from the age-old traditional Palestinian culture.
A prominent aspect of any society’s surface culture is its local cuisine. In 1948, Israel ethnically cleansed Palestine of the non-Jewish Palestinians, took over their land, and brazenly claimed Palestinian culinary treasures like hummus, falafel, baba ghanouj, tabouli salad, couscous (maftool), freekeh, kubbeh, mujadara, pita bread, and many more. All it took was to identify a Palestinian dish and then add the noun “Israeli” before its name.

Being on the right side of history while living through it is harder than hindsight makes it out to be. But to name wrongdoing in the moment, we only have to look to history, to basic human dignity. Who are we to dictate how Palestinians ought to fight the rapid erasure of their land and culture? Who are we to demand they back down and endure their current conditions and die unless their methods are ones we deem dignified? Such requisites are violent and self-serving. Peace is for the privileged.

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