By Dylan Allen

This is not a Halloween costume. This is not make believe. This has been daily reality for thousands of Gazans.

 The plight of the Gazan people has now reached its 52nd day.  In just over 50 days, over 2,104 Palestinians killed by Israeli Defense Force’s attacks, contrasted to only 72 Israeli deaths. Israel has claimed that the 5,226 targets that they have successfully hit has killed “thousands of terrorists”, a claim disputed by the UN, which reports 1,462 civilian deaths, including 495 children and 293 women. According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli-fired rockets damaged or destroyed 244 Gazan schools and 17,200 homes. Israel claims their “Knock On Roof” warning method, where a non-explosive rocket hits a building “15 minutes” before explosive rockets then target the building. However, many European countries criticize Israel noting that several rockets have given innocent Gazans less than a minute to escape their homes before their destruction.

 In contrast, in the same timeframe, there have only been 72 Israeli casualties, 66 of whom were military personnel. Israel has suffered just 6 civilian losses leading many Western Nations, not including the United States, to doubt the judgement and honesty of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Defense Force, who, ironically, have continually been on the offensive over the past 50 days.

It is peculiar then, that the United States, a proven ally to those under attack, continues to fund Israel and their actions without any reconsideration of withdrawing outright support of Israel, which has received over $100 billion in military aid directly from the United States. Yet, the United States shows no signs of reconsidering their outright support of what now seems to be more of an attempt for annexation, rather than the protection of Israeli citizens.

The greatest issue is the polar contrast of support for both groups. There are thousands of people dying from military attacks on civilian settlements, and regardless of their religion, they are still people with families, friends, colleagues, and their deaths are seemingly viewed without thought or remorse by their killers. Judeo-Christians, (and thus majority of the United States and Israel), who together make up a large majority of the international conversation, are supportive of Israel’s actions, and are ignorant of the monetary and moral costs of the onslaught against the Gazans (who are in the minority of the conversation, a group that is 99.8% Muslim, and who are the majority of casualties in the conflict).

One must not solely read statistics and make brash, uneducated decisions based on culture and religion, rather, one must realize the loss of humanity and the parallels to a certain historical era that one group was heavily involved in… and mustn’t allow another similar fate to come to another religious minority. Ignorance mustn’t become the “solution” to this problem. This haunting reality must quickly end.