If you’ve made it past the dismal national economic news on the front pages of the nation’s newspapers in the past few weeks, you’ve probably stumbled upon a large, important international news story: Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip.

The story gained a university bent this past week when senior in accounting Omar Manci organized two protests of Israel’s occupation, one on Sunday at the corner of Lincoln Way and Grand Avenue, and another Monday that started in front of the Memorial Union but was asked to move to one of campus’s designated free-speech zones.

The Gaza Strip is a small tract of land bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt and Israel. Israel withdrew from the area in 2005, but it still maintains control of nearly all the supply and access routes into the region. Israel itself was created by treaty in 1948, to the chagrin of its Arab neighbors and Arabs who occupied that land before European intervention.

It’s difficult to discern what’s true and what’s overblown in the news about the conflict. Both sides are accused of using their citizens as human shields, then broadcasting the results. There had been a cease-fire in place that Hamas officially denounced in December, but, in practice, it hadn’t been worth the paper it was written on. Amnesty International reports that Israel continued its blockade of supplies into Gaza during this time, and that Hamas never stopped firing off rockets.

Both sides have a tendency to justify their actions by illegitimizing the other side or simply saying it was in retaliation. But the fighting has been going on so long and has had so many facets, it’s impossible to discern who started what when. They’re like two unhappy children in the back of the family SUV on a cross-country journey: It doesn’t matter who struck the first blow, because they’ve been beating each other up all the way across Nebraska, and neither is willing to stop. 

This editorial is not an attack on the protest group who was moved from the Memorial Union. It’s empowering for college students to localize a national issue and bring attention to something they’re passionate about. But theirs is only one side of the story.

Until some sort of peace agreement is reached — and kept — this is a news story that will appear from time to time, with righteous feelings clamoring loudly on both sides. Hold whatever opinion you may, but with propaganda afloat, try to get your news from as many sources and sides and possible. Both sides are taking actions that are impoverishing and killing innocent people and families, and above all, that’s the greatest injustice.