In the West Bank and Gaza，young people like you are given an ID as well.But this ID is not about access.It is only about limitation.It limits the boundaries of where they can go，what they can do，who they can be.It"s a constant reminder that in others"eyes，they are less valuable...less important...simply less.
UN sources report that almost 40percent of the West Bank is now covered by settlement-related Israeli infrastructure barriers...buffer zones...military bases...barbed wire and barricades.
Parents can"t get to work.Students can"t get to class.Sick people can"t get to hospitals.All traffic is stopped，from people on foot to cars and trucks to ambulances.The wait can be hours，often only to find that passage is refused relatives detained on their way to a family wedding...schoolchildren searched，their notes ripped from their schoolbooks...grandparents，forced to stand for hours holding packages and heavy bags.
The unpredictability，anxiety，and humiliation are as wearing as the delay.
And so much more than freedom of movement is lost when each day is defined by these checkpoints...witharmed soldiers demanding"，Hawiya...ID...Hawiya...ID"Show me proof that you exist.
The degradation is compounded by the sense that no one cares...that the outside world is oblivious to the hardships Palestinians endure.
Especially in Gaza，where for two years，families have faced the collective punishment of blockade...and for threeweeks at the start of this year，they were subjected to devastating attack with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide...not even UN hospitals or schools.
Today，a million people-almost 70percent of Gaza"s population-are refugees.Homes lie in rubble.Hospitals lack power.Sewage pipes threaten to burst.The economy has totally，utterly collapsed.Unemployment is approaching 50percent.
One resident calls i"t sentence."a jail where no prisoner knows the length of hisAnd not one penny of the billions of dollars pledged for reconstruction has gotten through.
More than half the population of Gaza is under the age of 18.
Children did not create this conflict...but they are its greatest victims.
Just listen to the words of the four small children who were found by the Red Cross in January...in the shell-battered neighborhood of Zeitoun...clinging to their mothers"corpses：
They couldn"t speak.They were too weak to stand.They hadn"t eaten for days...while the firefight raged outside the door...and their families died inside.
They were alive...but being alive is not the same as surviving.These childrenhad nothing but their mothers"love...and now they have lost that too.
And t he worst t hreat of all is the cynicism so many people feel...the sense that Middle East peace is hopeless...that we"ll never find a solution.
Because if we throw up our hands andsay"，This problem is too hard，"we"re not just writing off a"process"...or writing off a"road map."We"re writing off people"slives.
But let me be clear：it isn"t just the lives of Palestinians at stake.Israelis too need a future of peace and security.
They too need to be free of wailing sirens announcing an attack.
And they too need to g row up without the shadow of walls and watchtowers...for as a columnist for a leading Israeli daily wrote this spring，one of the casualties of occupation may be a healthy state of Israel itself.
So what must be done？
On the political front，we need courage，accountability，and action.
And we see signs of hope，as President Obama and his team invest their time and capital in breathing life into negotiations for two viable，secure，sovereign states.
We see signs of hope，as all 22members of the Arab League have offered Israel full recognition in exchange for withdrawal to its pre-1967border.
We see signs of hope，as brave people on both sides say they are ready to give peace a chance 64percent of Palestinians，and 40percent of Israelis，who support the Arab League plan.
Now，all sides must take responsibility for building on this momentum.And let me say clearly：That responsibility includes the Arab world.We decry the actions of Israeli extremists，but mustwork harder to rein in our own.We look to the West to do more in support of Palestinianneeds，but must do our pa r t and must press the Palestinians toward unity among themselves.
At the same time，as my husband His Majesty King Abdullah has said，it is timefor Israel to choose"：
To integrate into the region，accepted and accepting，with normal relations with its neighbors；or to remain fortress Israel，isolated，and holding itself and the entire region a hostage to continuing confrontation."And from America，too，we need sustained commitment...creative engagement...and leadership...to keep the parties on the path to peaceful co-existence.
But we need even more.
Because true peace depends not just on new lines on a map.It is not just the walls on the land that must go.We must take down the walls in our hearts.There has been so much pain，so much loss，so much fear，so much hatred and mistrust.True peace depends on reconnecting the bonds of our common humanity.
I was moved by something J.K.Rowling said in her commencement at Harvard last year.She said that humans have the unique ability to "think themselves into other people"s places"...to learn and understand new things they"ve never actually experienced.
And yet，many"choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience，never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are.They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages；they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch thempersonally；they can refuse to know."Rowling went on to say"，I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way，except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do...I think t he w i l l f u l ly u n im a g in at ive se e moremonsters，"she said"，afraid."
