absolutely beautiful video by abdelkarim el-fassi in which eight dutch children tell the stories of eight palestinian children killed by israel. the children are shown in the exact same places where they were murdered – while sleeping in bed at night or playing on the beach or being pushed in a swing by their mom or posting on facebook from the safety of their home. the video is heartbreaking. but it does beg the question: can we only relate to human suffering when it is personified by white bodies? have black and brown children become so dehumanized that we are completely inured to the sight of their dead bodies? is it too hard for us to imagine them as we do these dutch kids: carefree, smiling, valuable, with certain inalienable rights including the right to be a child. this reminds us once again that palestine is more than just a land dispute or a religious “conflict.” palestine exists at the uncomfortable junction of racism and white supremacy, colonialism and exploitation, capitalism and economic subjugation, military oppression and resistance, propaganda and genocide, the ineffectual and hypocritical language of international law, the meaningless slogan of “human” rights, the hollowness of democracy in representing the voice of the people and not their grasping elite, and so much more. this is why palestine is so important to so many.