Fresno and Clovis have a stake in Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read on to learn how

The recent ceasefire has taken the conflict in Gaza and Israel off the front pages, but this is, by no means, an “end.” It has been ongoing for decades, and without major changes, it will continue.

For the last 12 years this devastation was under the direction of Benjamin Netanyahu, the scandal-plagued prime minister of Israel, and an increasingly extremist government. Now a new prime minister has come into office, but the dynamics of the situation will remain the same. Unless there is a dramatic and sustained shift in how the actions of the Israeli government toward Palestinians inside and outside of Israel, and the ongoing settlement expansions in Palestinian territories are dealt with by the rest of the world, the power imbalance will continue, along with the human rights abuses.

This cannot happen until we choose to see the whole truth of what is happening, rather than ignoring the things we do not want to see.

It’s often characterized as a war between two sides, but this simplification wholly ignores the tremendous power imbalance that exists between Israel, which receives $3.8 billion in aid annually from the U.S., and those in Gaza who for 16 years have been living under a strict blockade in what is, for all intents and purposes, an open-air prison.

Yet, the story that continues to be told in the United States by administration after administration and across most media is one that is tepid at best in condemnation of Israel’s abuses, but more often simply states that “Israel has a right to defend itself,” regardless of what Israeli provocations may have preceded said violence, and regardless of how disproportionately deadly Israeli strikes are to Palestinians.

While as of late, there has started to be more vocal condemnation of Israeli policies and abuses from progressive groups inside and outside of Israel, the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and various countries, many newspapers are hesitant to publish reports deemed critical of Israel. Recently an AP reporter found herself fired for tweets that were too supportive of Palestinians, and The New York Times faced blowback for having the audacity to publish the pictures and names of the 67 children killed in the most recent round of violence.

It is easier to pretend that lives do not matter when you do not have to see the evidence. We know this all too well right here in our own neighborhoods. The Hebrew version of the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, also featured the pictures of these children.

I was reminded of an interview I recently heard with a Holocaust survivor, Hungarian-Canadian physician Gabor Maté, in which he discusses what he knows and has seen in the region. Virtually none of what Maté spoke to is “new” information, but a particular point that he raised resonated tremendously. In today’s media-rich environment, from social media to various outlets both inside and outside of the region and across the world, we have the ability to see what is going on.

“You can get all the information you want, so if anybody these days doesn’t know, it’s not because the information is not available. It’s not what you know; it’s what you could know if you wanted to find out,” says Maté.

We need to stop actively trying not to find out. Until that happens, the human rights abuses and the injustices in this region will continue, and we, the American taxpayers, are funding it.