David Ward, a Lib Dem MP, posted a tweet which empathizes with the people of Gaza. Is it not normal to put yourself in other people's shoes and think about what they are experiencing? If you see images day after day of suffering and death is it not human to question what you would do in those circumstances? People are dying needlessly in Gaza and the Western world, until recently, has not intervened. Instead the US is against a UN international inquiry. The Conservative's 'Friends of Israel' group is a very powerful lobby group. Aid agencies say a child has been killed every hour, on average, in the past two days. Why is it then controversial to support or understand Gaza's sufferings?
I do not condone the actions of Hamas but I do not equate Palestinians with the political aims of Hamas. Gideon Levy, the famous Jewish journalist, has questioned whether Israel wants peace at all. Israel has whipped up war mongering talk ever since three Jewish teens were found murdered. There is still no evidence that Hamas did it. Yet, the ordinary children of Gaza have paid the price. I felt very sad over the deaths of the Jewish teens but their deaths cannot be used to justify the needless slaughter of hundreds in Palestine.
I fear for the young of Palestine and Israel because they are being brought up with a culture of hatred for the other side. As a teenage girl I was shocked by the hatred that pre-army teens were tweeting. The fact that they believed it was normal to put these racist thoughts onto a social networking site that is open to the world reflects the hatred towards Palestine that they have been brought up with. On the other side there were a lot anti-semitic and pro-Hitler tweets which are absolutely wrong. How is there ever going to be a two state solution now or in the future?
UNICEF 