President Barack Obama touted America’s unconditional support for Israel in a speech on Thursday, but he also asked the Israeli people to consider the rights of Palestinians who are also often the target of violence.
“Put yourself in their shoes – look at the world through their eyes,” Obama said in Jerusalem. “It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day. It is not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished. It is not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; to restrict a student’s ability to move around the West Bank; or to displace Palestinian families from their home. Neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer. Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land.”
