The Intriguing Humanity in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Anonymous

I sat in the ornate home of my teammate’s mom, an established Palestinian surgeon, when she said, “I wish someone had killed them all.” I just finished asking this woman how the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict impacted her life, and was shocked at this response. My drive to ask her this question stemmed months prior when introduced to the Public Forum debate resolution: “Resolved: The United States should push Israel towards a two-state solution.” My research, however, did not begin with this Palestinian surgeon.

As usual with a new debate topic, I began scouring the internet for research studies, accredited news sources, and history lessons to feed my interest. These types of sources were what I needed to win debates. My research gave me detailed statistics on death tolls, a water crisis, and a multitude of tragedies that this conflict had caused. No longer could I become “lost” in the topic, as it proves hard to become entranced with sadness. Instead, I completed my last debate tournament of the month with the Israeli-Palestinian resolution and decided to continue to gain knowledge and perspective past the initial constraints of my debate topic. I pursued the very stories of the people residing behind every statistic, as the...