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We knew that for Palestinians living under Israeli governance and military occupation things didn't look nearly as good, but we believed the Israelis intended a state shared by both peoples. By the 1990s, it was increasingly difficult to maintain this belief. The many attempts at solutions to what was now a crisis failed one after the other: Every round of peace talks was followed—or even accompanied—by settlement building, often on land that had been farmed by Palestinian families for generations.It has become apparent that The Beautiful Israel is a lot less beautiful to Palestinians and has always been this way. Many of the kibbutz "utopias" are, in fact, segregated colonies built on the ruins of Palestinian villages that were ethnically cleansed in 1948. And Israel's social democracy has always been largely restricted to its Jewish citizens: There are areas controlled by the Israeli army where Palestinian residents are not allowed to walk on the street where they live.Palestinians are not asking you to save them. By calling for a boycott of Israel, they are only asking you not to help Israel oppress them.
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Even if we look at only the past 20 years, while bands from the US and the UK regularly come to Tel Aviv to sing to Israeli audiences about love and dialogue, conditions have only become worse for Palestinians.
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