"In November we reported with joy about the new school structure at Susiya (Susya). (see also an earlier report here).

Only a few weeks later, the Occupation regime's fraudulently named "Civil Administration" handed down demolition orders to the school."

I visited Susiya as part of a tour by "Breaking the Silence," a group of former Israeli soldiers who tell the truth about their military service. They visit Susiya today because it was one of the villages they helped to ethnically cleanse and destroy in preparation for the building of an Israeli-only settlement.

All of Susiya's wells were confiscated by the settlers and are located in what is now called a "buffer" between the new Israeli-only Susiya and the Palestinian Susiya (today little more than a camp with huts made of salvaged materials).

The Palestinians have to truck in their water because if they step into the buffer zone to draw from wells they themselves dug they are likely to be shot by soldiers guarding the settlement.

But I have to ask you to explain what you mean by "bravery." I lived in Israel-Palestine (occupied East Jerusalem, to be exact) for two years. I felt every bit as safe there as I did in my neighborhood in St. Paul, Minn. I witnessed the oppression of the Palestinian people daily, but experienced only inconvenience.

I'm a journalist myself and hate to admit it but much of the reporting coming out of Israel-Palestine is incomplete at best and racist at worst. All we hear about are the flare-ups -- the mostly localized, isolated incidents that are covered as though the region is in flames. And they report them from the Israeli point of view.

Where are the stories of Palestinians and internationals begin shot with gas canisters, deadly rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition during peaceful vigils? Where are the stories of soldiers harassing Palestinian children on their way to school? Where are the stories of 100-year-old groves of olive trees -- many times a family's only means of support -- being uprooted to make way for an Israeli-only highway?

I appreciate your compliment, inkognito, but I believe American media has given you a false impression of the "danger" I faced in Israel-Palestine. Please see the bravery in the Palestinians, who continue to get married, have families, pray, laugh, cry and hope in the face of a hopeless situation.

You are exactly right -- Israelis who have these viewpoints are few and are vilified by those who disagree with them.

I appreciate your awareness of the situation and advocacy for Palestinian children!