While the American media frequently covers the conditions and issues of the Middle East, few University students can grasp the far-reaching consequences of the reports.
Almost no one will ever fully understand the frustration felt by suicide bombers, experience the humiliation of passing through checkpoints on a daily basis or live in fear of enemy soldiers, but one student has.
Second-year Engineering student Raya Yusuf is the only student attending the University from Palestine.
Born in Jerusalem, Raya grew up in Ramallah in the West Bank with her parents and three younger siblings.
She attended a private Christian school for girls run by nuns although she and most of her classmates were Muslim.
"Over there, there is no difference between Christian and Muslim," she explained. "That is something that people over here don't know. They think there are no Christians in the Middle East."
Although her school was in the West Bank, her mother teaches ninth grade Palestinian students in Jerusalem, in a school run by the Israeli ministry of education. While traveling to Jerusalem each day used to be easy, Raya said her mother's trip can now take hours rather than the mere 20 minutes it took previously because of Israeli checkpoints between the West Bank and Jerusalem, a frequent point of contention among Palestinians.
Raya's experiences with the checkpoints have been anything but positive.
"It's just humiliation," she explained. "Sometimes they never search us. They make me stand and make fun of me sometimes."
She recalled times when she was forced to wait in the rain or sun for hours at a time for no apparent reason.
"They're bored," she said, suggesting a possible reason the soldiers force them to wait. "They're 18 years old, like what do you expect from them? They're very young, they're bored and [the generals] choose the ones who really hate the Palestinians the most to stand on checkpoints."
In her opinion, the inconvenience of going through the checkpoints is worsened by their uselessness.
"The whole point is to make us frustrated," she said. "They don't really check for bombs. I could easily bring a bomb from one side to the other because they don't check the bags or anything."
She said if Palestinians really wanted to bring bombs into Israel, they could cut through the hills or avoid the main roads. Furthermore, she said one of her friends was physically attacked at a checkpoint.
Although the harassment is generally not physically harmful, it can be mentally distressing.
"They sometimes make me and my friends -- the girls -- stop and they start singing to us. Like what is that?" she asked in disbelief, marveling at the soldiers' audacity.
"Once a soldier stopped me for a whole hour and he wanted to arrest me," she said. "After like 45 minutes, he was like, 'Okay, I will let you pass this time,' and so I passed. Next time it was the same soldier, and so he stopped me and said, 'You know what? The first time I saw you, I really liked you and I wanted to talk to you a little bit more, and that's why I did that,'" she recalled, remembering her fear about potentially going to jail.
Interactions like these fuel the hatred many Palestinians feel toward Israeli soldiers.
According to Raya, most of the altercations between Israeli soldiers and rock-throwing Palestinians occur at these checkpoints. She said children will sometimes throw rocks at the soldiers when passing through the checkpoints on their way home from school, and she expressed concern about this action being portrayed as an activity supported by their parents and community.
"Palestinian children are not taught to hate," she said. "In fact, in all the school books, it just talks about freedom, talks about peace, talks about end of war."
She passionately denied claims that Palestinians use their children as shields while attacking Israeli soldiers.
"All soldiers say that," she asserted. "It's so funny, I think, because we're humans, too. We're not animals. Even animals care about their children. We are human beings. Why would a mother send her child to throw a rock when she knows a rock can't do anything?"
She said the children's inability to actually harm soldiers by rock throwing further demonstrates the dishonorable intentions of the Israeli soldiers.
"If they're not there to kill, if they're there for other reasons like security like they say, even though it's not true, just get in your stupid car and sit down," she said with frustration. "They're just 18-year-old soldiers who are so immature."
She said soldiers who experience killing others are permanently changed in their views on life.
"I always say the first time you do something is the hardest, and then after that, it's so easy," she said. "The first time you might freak out, like 'Oh my God, I killed someone,' but then it becomes normal. So imagine they get 18-year-olds to do that. I can't imagine myself killing something."
Although she said she considers the children's acts against the soldiers harmless and relatively insignificant, she gave much more serious consideration to the actions of suicide bombers.
"I'm against killing of civilians," she said. "Other than that, I don't mind. I'm against killing in general, but I wouldn't be very concerned if I heard soldiers were killed."
Raya said she is not opposed to suicide bombers' attacks on Israeli soldiers because she can relate to where the bombers are coming from.
"I can understand what they've gone through," she explained. "Every one has at least lost three members of their family because of Israelis or some have family members in jail that are never going to come out. They've been hurt so much from the Israelis, and they've seen so much suffering. They want to end it in some way, and I think that's the only way that they think have right now."
She claimed they thought they had no alternative because the Israeli government is no longer pursuing peace.
"They don't want to talk to our president for no reason," she said. "They're just making up excuses, both governments, both the American and Israeli governments."
In her opinion, both governments should deal directly with Arafat because he is the Palestinian's chosen leader, rather than with the prime minister, who she feels was chosen by the American government.
"Arafat is not the greatest leader, but I agree with him on a lot of things," she said. "I really feel that he can negotiate with the Israelis and that he really wants peace."
She asserted, however, that Arafat cannot accomplish anything as long as he is locked in his compound, which is located near her home.
"What can he do there when he cannot leave that building? He does not have power at all right now," she said. "They almost reached peace before. I'm not sure why they have a problem with him now. They only say they have a problem with him now so they can delay the peace process."
She continued, adamantly claiming the Israeli government has no intention of pursuing peace.
"I'm very disappointed by the Israeli government right now because of everything they do," she said. "A couple times we decided to stop the suicide bombings and everything is quiet for a while, and then the Israeli government decides to assassinate someone in Hamas, someone really big just so they can provoke members of Hamas. So I feel the Israeli government does not want peace at this time."
She was far more optimistic, however, about individual Israeli citizens' intentions toward Palestinians, although she also noted recent Israeli polls have shown decreased tolerance, a trend she attributes to the government.
"I feel that this government is trying to increase the hatred," she said. "I don't think they're aiming for peace. I also feel the new generation is a little better than the generation before. The people my age want peace more than the old ones."
She mentioned she knows Israelis who requested non-fighting positions in the army or avoided going to the army altogether by attending American universities, although this option is really only available to women.
"I've had a lot of friends that have decided not to go to the army because they think it's wrong," she said, acknowledging the severe social consequences this decision may carry. "Some of them are really hurt by what goes on and they don't want to be a part of it."
She was able to meet these Israelis by participating in a program called Seeds of Peace, an experience that profoundly changed her opinions about Israeli civilians.
"Before I went to Seeds of Peace, the only Israeli I used to see was a soldier walking the streets killing people and just scaring us, and it was just a source of fear for us and a threat," she recalled. "Since we only saw soldiers who were really bitter and showed no mercy at all, [Palestinian youth] are really confused, but I think they're starting to learn that there's more than just soldiers, that there are civilians that also want peace."
The organization, founded in 1993 by an American Jew, brings both sides together at a camp in Maine, an opportunity Raya has had twice.
"Before coming to Seeds of Peace, I wanted peace just because I didn't want the Palestinians to suffer," she said. "But I now have a lot of Israeli friends and it also hurts me when some Israeli civilians were hurt because of a bombing or something, so I just want it to end for both sides."
The conditions experienced by Palestinians both within and outside Israel increase the intensity of her desire for peace.
"You never sleep [in the West Bank] because of the sounds of the bombs, and the shots and all that. You never sleep," she said. "And after seeing all that -- having tanks in the streets all the time, and having family members killed -- you just get so frustrated that you want to do something, you want to change this."
She explained that few Israelis are forced to experience such treatment.
"In Israel you have some suicide bombers and that's it, but for us, we would be locked in our homes and we'd be only allowed to go out once every few days to get bread, and if you went outside you would get shot," she said.
Growing up in such conditions made Raya's childhood far different from the childhoods of American children. She remembered her extreme pleasure one day when her school closed early, allowing her to go to a market before it closed so she could purchase a lollipop, a rare luxury because shops were frequently forced to close early.
"There is no such thing as a Palestinian child," she said. "Palestinian children just come out from their moms, and they're adults, and that's because of all they've been through since they were born."
Although the lives of children in Palestine are difficult, Raya said the conditions are often worse for Palestinian refugees in Arab countries.
"It's just the hardest life ever," she said.
She said the refugees do not want citizenship in the Arab countries because that would mean forever surrendering any claim on Israel.
"They all have dreams of going back to their homes," she said. "The old generation still has keys to their homes, and they tell their grandchildren everything."
Meanwhile, the refugees live in poor conditions despite the support of some European countries which Raya said is unsubstantial.
"When the whole infrastructure is destroyed, what can they do?" she asked. "What we have is not enough. It's just impossible right now. It's so hard to make changes."
Furthermore, Raya said the United States also impedes Palestinian progress.
"The Americans just don't mind if [the Israelis] kill us," she said. "They just say they're defending themselves. What are they defending themselves of?"
She also asserted that American media distorts the situation so severely that she can understand why some Americans hate Palestinians.
"It changes everything," she said. "The media can change anything -- it can change white into black and black into white. If you have the power, you can do anything with the media."
She cited media implications that Islam is responsible for terrorism as further proof of this bias.
"They just want Muslims to look very bad," she said, remembering media covering Sept. 11 such as videos depicting Arabs celebrating the attacks.
"It might have happened in some places, but they lied about some things," she said. "Even if it happened, the Palestinians can differentiate between government and people
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