I was born in the United States and lived there through early childhood, but since returning with my family to Palestine, I have never wanted to go back. The United States has always evoked mixed feelings in me. I have a certain nostalgia for the place of my birth but my overall sentiments always culminated in a sense of resentment for this so-called superpower that has systematically aided in my people’s oppression, occupation and dehumanization.

That is, until present day. The scenes of American university campuses breaming with students in kuffiyehs, waving Palestinian flags and resisting the brutality of the police and their own university administrations, has uplifted my spirit in ways I cannot fully articulate. In a word, what is happening on US campuses today is validation of our people, of Palestine and of our struggle. To those who live comfortable lives in free countries, this may sound like an exaggeration, but for my people, who have been denied their very right to exist, who have been demoralized, demonized and dehumanized, this is huge. We are seeing students of all races, creeds, backgrounds and religions, calling for an end to the genocide in the Gaza Strip and marching for a free Palestine and divestment from the Israeli occupation. We are hearing Jewish voices, debunking Zionist propaganda and its below-the-belt attempts to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. We are being validated for our struggle, for our resistance against oppression, occupation and settler-colonialism and we are finally being heard and seen.

Students have always been the litmus test for social and political justice. Rallies and demonstrations on university campuses have been the driving force against imperialist wars throughout the ages, the Vietnam War being the best example. However, what is so incredible about this movement is that American students are not directly involved in Palestine. Students are not being drafted into an army to fight on foreign soil, so the stakes are not as high for them at the personal level. What is happening today is the direct result of the intersectionality of struggles and the belief that no one is free until all of us are free. This is a force far more powerful than a genocidal regime will ever be.

The scenes from university campuses in the United States and now in Europe, juxtaposed against the crushing images from the Gaza Strip, are a balm for our wounded hearts. We feel a kinship with these incredible Gen Zs who have put their very lives on the line for Palestine. We send them love, energy and solidarity as we watch them being thrown to the ground, handcuffed and arrested and we burst with pride as we hear them chant ‘Free Palestine”.

This is a moment in time that must not be squandered. May these American university protests spread like wildfire throughout campuses across the world, putting to shame both Zionism and American imperialism, which has allowed this racist ideology to survive. The Palestinians have never wavered in their determination to liberate their land from Israeli occupation and oppression, whether they do it alone or with the help of friends. Today, thanks to the beautiful people all over the world who have championed our cause alongside of us, a free Palestine is not only an inevitability, it is just around the corner.

When Israel claimed women were sexually assaulted on a mass scale on October 7, the world exploded. Almost the entirety of Israel’s genocidal war was based on these and other allegations, many unsubstantiated. We all remember the infamous’40 beheaded babies” story, do we not?

This article is not about Israeli allegations per se, neither will it only focus on violations against Palestinian women. This is about a world that is immediately up in arms when one side merely alleges atrocities while it turns a blind eye to actual documented violations against the “other”.

In Gaza, it is painfully clear that we indeed, are ‘the other’. How else can anyone explain the muted cries of women being stripped, raped, starved and murdered practically in real time, on our phone screens, documented in UN reports and described in horrific detail in eyewitness testimonies? There is no other explanation than that Palestinians are what Arundhati Roy calls “Children of a lesser God”. We are the victims of deep-rooted colonialism, one whose geographic demarcations may have vanished but whose insidious, dehumanizing mentality still prevails and manifests in the ugliest of manners.

For nearly six months, Palestinians have endured unspeakable atrocities at the hands of Israel’s occupying army. Today, the Gaza Strip has been reduced to an emaciated shell of what it once was. As Gaza is being systematically decimated and ethnically cleansed, the world, for the most part, looks on. Barring sympathetic supporters and a few well-intended but timid political actors, nothing has been done to stop the carnage. Palestinians once believed there was no way the world would allow Israel to erase Gaza off the map, no way it could see a live-streamed genocide and do nothing. But that is exactly what is happening.

Then, when we thought things could not get any worse, something unfathomable emerged from the deathtrap of Gaza. When this happened, we were certain it would be the turning point in this hellish nightmare. Well-documented reports, corroborated by the UN and eyewitnesses on the ground, told of harrowing stories of sexual assault against Palestinian women in Gaza.

We were paralysed with horror when we heard of women being raped by Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza, assaulted and stripped in front of their families. What’s worse, we all know that in times like these, the undocumented atrocities will far outnumber those documented. Who knows what horrors will unfold once the dust settles in Gaza; no doubt they will be so horrific, our entire nation will be traumatized for years to come.

The real question here is not how Israel’s soldiers perpetrated such gross violations. I think by now we can all agree that this depraved military establishment and its political echelon to boot, has dehumanized and vilified Palestinians so much and for so long, they will justify just about anything. No, the question is more about the moral compass of the rest of the world. While alliances and political interests are always part of the equation, even when the issue pertains to basic human rights, nothing can better explain the blatant hypocrisy, double standards and loss of collective humanity than the deafening silence today.

Our women have not only been killed, starved and displaced, they have been exposed to the very violations that sparked global outrage and a genocidal war against an entire population under occupation, unprecedented in modern history. This is not only unacceptable, it is an indelible stain on humanity. Sexual violence is a crime so heinous it is imperative to condemn and prevent, no matter the perpetrator or the victim. That must always be the baseline in any argument.

Palestinians will never get past this genocide; it is not something you can come back from. However, be assured, this is not only about the Palestinians. The world’s women, the majority of so-called feminists who have remained disgustingly silent, must know this: when you do not stand up for women, all women, no one will stand up for you in your time of need.

I once heard that anger is not a real emotion, but a cover for other feelings such as sadness, disappointment or fear. You need to peel back that outer layer to understand what is really going on inside.

Strange how this has lately resurfaced for me, but I think I know why. Lately, I and surely, millions of other Palestinians, have been filled with a blinding rage -- at Israel, at the United States, and at the world overall. This is a rage that is all-encompassing, the depth of which is palpable at the cellular level, permeating every molecule and every atom of our being. The genocide in the Gaza Strip has grated our emotions raw and we are left stinging and burning from our head to our toes.

Our anger is like a huge magnetosphere and we are all trapped inside, but its walls are translucent and we can see the source of our rage mocking us from beyond. We Palestinians are angry because we are so disappointed and we are angry because we are disillusioned and we are angry because we are drowning in sorrow.

Our disappointment lies in the fact that the world has failed us in the worst possible way and has allowed the unspeakable to be committed against us. Genocide is the ‘mother of all crimes’ and, contrary to the promises, the conventions and the historical lessons the world was supposed to learn, it has been committed over and over again. The Palestinian genocide, however, is unique in at least one way: it is live-streamed, which means no one can claim ignorance and everyone has a responsibility in stopping it. Hence, our disappointment is not limited to countries, Arab or otherwise, or to international and human rights organizations. It has spread to everyone in our orbit; acquaintances and people we thought were friends, but whose silence towards our slaughter is a deafening betrayal. Our sense of disappointment has discolored every relationship it touches because every relationship for us is a dichotomy: you are either with or against genocide and either support Palestine in word and deed, or not.

Our anger is a thin veil concealing our disillusion with the international community and its institutions, supposedly established to protect people in situations precisely like ours. We have confirmed what we knew all along, that these organizations were constructed for some and not all, for colonial powers and not those who suffer beneath them. Even when the highest court in the land rules in our favor, the Global North ensures that its ruling will not be implemented to save us, the oppressed, indigenous brown people whose lives apparently do not matter.

And finally, our anger is a survival mechanism to shield us from our own grief. Our sorrow over the murdered men, women and children, defenseless, homeless, starving and shivering in the cold, is so deep, so immense, we ourselves cannot fathom it. If we dare peek behind this anger and truly feel a fraction of the aching in our hearts, it will paralyze us for sure, because no people can endure the magnitude and scale of such suffering and not lose their minds.

We Palestinians know we cannot let go and that a new day is near. We know we must hold on just a little bit longer, because Palestine depends on it. We are no strangers to oppression, suffering and sacrifice and we know the price of our freedom has and continues to be painfully high. Still, we also know that a life without shackles and the yoke of oppression around our weary necks is the only life worth living.

Every time I come through the border to enter Israel, my stress levels reach their highest. Even though I have done nothing to harm anyone nor have I committed any crimes, because I am a returning Palestinian, I fear the possibility of being refused entry into my own country and hence I am plagued with a feeling of guilt. This guilty feeling is triggered by the experience I had at the border in 2004. I was issued an entrance visa valid for only one week even though I claimed that I needed a decent amount of time to visit my family. Of course, the Israelis don’t need to give me any means of justification for their actions. They just make you feel as if you have done something wrong.

This time, I was only afraid of the duration of my stay - whether they would give me the customary three months entry visa in my capacity as a Japanese citizen. I had not expected at all that I would be denied entry. Shockingly enough, the border control officers said I needed a so called 'returning-visa' to enter Israel given that I also hold a Jerusalem ID.

I had heard of an increasing number of tourists denied entry into Israel. According to a Haaretz report on June 15, the number of tourists denied entry in 2007 rose to 2,941 cases, an increase of 60% compared to 2005 in which there were 1,828 cases. However, I had never expected that Israeli immigration officers would deny a person entry for not having a visa to return to one’s own country, the place where I was born. I was sent back and told to go to the Israeli embassy to wait for a response from the foreign affairs office. After a week or so in Egypt, I received a phone call indicating that my Jerusalem residence ID number had been canceled and that I could only enter Israel as a tourist.

After entering my own country as a Japanese tourist, I began to hear several stories similar to my own. Other people's stories made me realize that the revocation of residency rights in east Jerusalem is not as uncommon as it used to be. According to B'tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, the number of residents in east Jerusalem who had their Jerusalem IDs revoked in 2006 reached an all time high at 1,363. This is more than six times the case than 2005 when the number was 222.

For many east Jerusalemites, this residency card is their only form of identification. While it allows them to move freely within the country, it does not constitute citizenship. Contrarily, every Jew, even immigrants who had never been to Israel before are eligible for citizenship automatically. While this is racist enough, what is worse is that this residency card is constantly under the risk of confiscation.

So-called "un-identifiable" residency within Jerusalem is the most common reason for revocation. That is, if the ID holder cannot prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that they hold their center of life within Jerusalem's borders.

Between1996 and1999 when the government was under the extreme right former Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, 3,008 east Jerusalemites were victims of ID revocation. After those four years, the number of revoked ID cards per year oscillated between 200 and 270 but in 2006, it rose to over 1300, the highest number in history.

The Israeli ministry of foreign affairs claims there is no specific reason for the increase in ID card cancellation except that the interior ministry and immigration office have become more active than before. I only wish they would give me a legitimate answer or justification to this simple question: “Why have our residency rights been revoked?”

Permanent or temporary migration to foreign countries (of course, this includes the West Bank) is cited by Israel as one justification for ID revocation. Still, if the rise in this migration is caused by the deterioration in living standards because of the separation wall that has strangled Jerusalem, which is very likely and reasonable, then it is practically a forced exclusion under the false pretense of “free will.” Once we leave by our own “free-will,” we are then not welcomed back, even as tourists. To me, conditional freedom is not freedom at all.

Besides this “free will”, the high birth rate among Arab Palestinians is arguably a major reason for this rapid rise in ID revocation. Israel's leaders are concerned about the growing gap in the Jew-to-Arab ratio within the country because of the higher population growth rate among Palestinians. Hence Israel, they fear, may soon become an ‘Arab state.’ However, the fertility rate of Arabs is declining while that of Jews has risen in recent years, according to an article published in Haaretz on June 2. The birth rate among Arabs was 4.3 children and 3.7 children among Jews in 2000, while the rate was four children and 3.9 children respectively in 2006. Also, the growth rate of the Arab-Palestinian population is slowing down - from 3.3% in 1999 to 2.5% in 2006. Could the rise in Jewish birth rates somehow help east Jerusalemites keep their residency rights?

The most disturbing aspect of this to me, however, is that Israel is taking away the sole and only proof of identification for east Jerusalemites, who are neither Israeli nor Palestinian citizens. Their blue-backed ID card is the sole indication of their presence as Palestinian residents of Jerusalem. Revoking these ID cards not only means losing a piece of paper, but losing an important human dimension of their identity.

“Whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity,” opined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in [I see the Promised Land, April 3, 1968]

What are the obstacles to Palestinian unification? If there are inequalities or disadvantages experienced by a certain group, then this could cause feelings of hostility towards the others thus feeding straight into the occupiers' hands. By considering some of your own people as "hostile parties", you are falling into the trap and making yourself easier to be controlled. As an outsider, but also as a Palestinian, I am often reminded of the abovementioned quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Without unification, how can we achieve solidarity?

As I walked through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, I had a chance to talk to a middle-aged man who works for a hotel in the area. While we were talking about how the West Bank and East Jerusalem have changed in recent years, he calmly said he feels Christians in Jerusalem are clearly more advantaged than Muslims in the city.

He complained that all the residents in the Christian quarter apply and easily gain Israeli citizenship while residents of the Muslim Quarter have many more obstacles in their way. The truth is this it is not really the case. There may be many Christians who have Israeli citizenship, but there are many more permanent resident holders than citizens in the Christian Quarter, similar to those in the Muslim Quarter.

This man may have been slightly exaggerating, but nevertheless, it does seem in general that people from the Muslim community think of Christians as more advantaged than themselves. For example, Christians who have a West Bank ID can apply for permission to enter Israel on every Christian holiday and some of them are valid for 40 days. On the other hand, Muslim West Bankers aren't allowed permission as frequently, and even if they are, the duration is only for a few days. Another Muslim man said to me that Israel is trying to win Christians over to their side and would then eventually turn on Muslim Palestinians. Whether this fear is valid or not, the fact that there is some level of distrust amongst each other means this could possibly spread between them and escalate into hostility.

As I see it, the Christian community, which is considered the more privileged party, is not an exception in this cycle of distrust. I have met a number of Christians in Palestine who do not fully trust other religious groups in their society. There are even those who do not like their children to mingle with Muslim kids and vice versa. Some Christians complain that Muslims hire only Muslims in their companies while Muslims make the same allegations. The cycle of distrust is always reciprocal.

Another obstacle towards reaching a unified and harmonious society is the physical separation. The wall Israel has built along and inside the West Bank has clearly separated thousands of Palestinians whereby people living in different areas have started developing individually. I was completely astonished to see the change and liveliness of Ramallah this time compared to my last visit to Palestine four years ago. At the same time, some towns I visited like Jericho, Bethlehem and Qalandia weren't much different. I often hear about the Hamas-Fatah conflict in Gaza, but people talk about it as if it were a civil war in another country. Of course, since Gaza seems so far away because it is not accessible – completely closed off to other Palestinian areas and to the outside world - and we only depend on the media for information about the situation, perhaps I should not be so critical about how we live our daily lives “separated” from our people in Gaza. Still, I just can’t help but think that this is one more trap we fell in which has only made it easier for Israel to control us.

It seems only natural to follow the path that has already been paved for us. Passivity may be easier than questioning and changing what is already there. But if we ourselves don’t step back and try to realize that we are clutching at our own necks, we can end up harming ourselves. From the observations of people in Palestine, I strongly believe we need understanding between each other before we attempt to achieve this with others. Let us take our cue from the ancient Egyptian slaves – only when they united could they fend off the pharaoh's evil schemes. We should not allow Israel - this modern day pharaoh – to manipulate us.