We stayed with Danika's day to day work protecting students and baring witness to the brutal Israeli occupation.
As a parent and a grandfather, I couldn't help thinking of those Palestinian students and what they face every day trying to get to school. Racism makes people monsters, whether it is white police killing blacks on the streets of our cities or white prosecutors and juries locking up innocent African Americans for decades on trumped up charges. Danika could have been a member of the Freedom Bus rides in the late 1950's, or a member of a voter registration drive during Freedom Summer.
How does one get over hating the oppressor? Maybe the hatred comes from understanding how easily people can be corrupted by privilege and power. To see what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza is surely looking into the abyss. It is a holocaust in the making, as long as our country continues to arm and defend the murderous acts of apartheid Israel.
