I just returned from a week of vacation travel, covering 1500 miles. I was not stopped at any checkpoint, my identity was not required to move across state lines, the police and the military, though seen, had no interest in me. There were no roads I could not take, no places I was forbidden to visit. When I returned, my home was as I left it.
This simple act of travel is forbidden to Palestinians, though they have a lineage in Palestine far, far deeper than I have in the United States. They cannot leave where they live for any period of time for fear that their property will be taken from them and they must take round-about routes since there are roads they may not take. A visit outside the occupied territories is very risky because there is no guarantee they will be allowed back home.
When I did get home, I found a political flyer in my mail. A candidate for the U.S. Senate from Illinois was condemned for having contributed to Palestinian relief. The title of the flyer: A TROUBLING PATTERN OF FUNDING ANTI-ISRAEL GROUPS.
This shows how far Americans are from any connection with events in Palestine, and how little they know about their own unwitting support for the denial of the freedoms they hold dear.
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