Seventy-five years later the initial dislocation of 800,000 Palestinians has grown to 5.6 million people who have not returned home

Where does dehumanization start and how is it cultivated over time to rationalize how we, individually and collectively as a nation, feel about and by extension treat others at home and across the globe? How do we recognize and interrogate the preconceptions we hold about entire populations, biases that justify their dislocation, the bombing and eradication of their schools, universities and hospitals and the deaths of tens of thousands of men, women and children? These are some of the questions that arose from my conversation with Mara Kronenfeld, CEO of UNRWA USA, the NGO that supports the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees founded in 1949 upon the creation of the state of Israel. The agency was meant to be temporary, a source of education, food and healthcare until a just and durable political solution was created. Now, 75 years later, the initial dislocation of 800,000 Palestinians has grown to 5.6 million people who have not returned home, and thousands of staff provide humanitarian support in Gaza, the West Bank, Easy Jerusalem and Jordan every day. One very bright spot is that donations to UNWWA are increasing exponentially. Priests, Rabbis and Muslim clerics are calling out for change.