If you were to believe British and American media, you'd probably think of palestiners

one half in an ancient conflict between two warring Abrahamic civilizations.

Maybe occasionally, you'd get a bit worried about those images of people being cable tied

inside a mosque, or kids being bombed in Gaza, only to learn that they'd brought it on

themselves because of the activities of Hamas.

Palestinians rarely get to tell their own stories, and in the odd occasion that they do, it's

in highly limited terms.

That's why today I'm joined by Muhammad El-Kurd to learn about the realities of life under

military occupation, and what the media gets wrong about Israel and Palestine.

Muhammad, thank you so much for joining us.

I just thought maybe places out is what was your childhood like in Shakshira?

You know, I get that question a lot, and I imagine people don't know how what's life

like under military occupation, but the easy answer is it's quite bad, it's quite difficult.

You grow up sensing that having an army force on your doorstep at all times, having police

surveillance, watching into your bedroom at all times, fearing walking around the street

with your hands in your pockets, because you don't want to be accused of wanting to commit

an attack, at all times is the norm around the world, and then as you grow up and you

start to read and you start to watch things, you realize that that is not the norm.

In some countries, people look at police to protect them, and people look at the army

to serve them, and are not worried about losing their homes at any given moment, are not

worried about being shot in the street at any given moment.

So this is an inherently political experience that forces you to be politicized as a child,

...