After a long meeting with Abbas, Obama met with a group of young Palestinians in a small classroom. Each took turns speaking and had a wrenching story of occupation. I noticed one boy, about eighteen, who looked the most agitated throughout the meeting, staring at his hands while the others spoke. He was last to speak, and when his turn came he told similar stories of friends imprisoned, freedom of movement restricted. Finally, he built up to a line that he had clearly practiced. “Mr. President, we are treated the same way the black people were treated in your country. Here, in this century.”
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