Jere, I have a tendency to side with the Palestinians, simply because Israel was a consolation prize for the holocaust.

“Sorry we took so long to keep Hitler from killing your people. How about we fulfill Jehovah’s promise for you? Will that make you feel better? Here… here’s your promised Zion.”

The creation of Israel was to the detriment of other nations and peoples and was done out of a position of privilege by the British after WWI and then later the UN in 1947. Essentially, it’s a large-scale form of segregation. Israel might be progressive in some of it’s human and civil rights stances and policies (i.e., queers, women, etc), but there is a cultural loathing of Arabs in Israel that prevents social justice. Arabs legally living in Israel are treated much like Blacks were in 50s America (and still are today, really): refused work and denied many other economic benefits and responsibilities, simply because of their nationality. Economically, Palestine is to Israel, as Mexico is to the US.

I’d say, Palestinian Arabs were given a raw fucking deal… forced out of their own land and being told by a “white” power (the UN), that they aren’t the “chosen people” of Israel.