Sixty years ago, Israel drove my mother, her family and all of her village out of their homes, to never see these homes again. They became part of the diaspora for the Palestinians.

Kharruba, my mother’s town, was one of more than 400 Palestinian towns and villages that were either depopulated or destroyed after the state of Israel came into being on May 14, 1948.

My mother was four years old and was asleep. When she woke up she found no one in the village and froze in fear. She was alone for 16 hours before my grandfather returned to search for her and found her.

For 60 years, Israel and its allies have refused to acknowledge the human tragedy at the birth of the state of Israel. By helping one group, the international community hurt another.

I recognize the suffering of Jews, not only in the Holocaust but also in the oppression they faced for thousands of years, especially in Europe. And I appreciate the desire to grant a home to the Jewish people.

But giving them a home has meant depriving us of our home.

Today, 60 years later, the brutality continues.

On the West Bank, tens of thousands live in refugee camps, and Palestinian land is pockmarked by settlements and Israeli roads.

In Gaza, where 60 percent of the people are under 18, the average daily caloric intake rivals that of the poorest people in Africa. The World Health Organization reports that Palestinians don’t have enough clean water to drink. According to a U.N. report, the lack of nutrition is causing brain damage among Palestinian children ages five and younger.

Despite these harsh facts of occupation, most of the news reports focus on Palestinian violence whenever it occurs, and neglect the daily violation of Palestinian lives and humanity.

The very year that Israel came into being, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was established. Yet the Israeli government violates this declaration on a daily basis in its treatment of Palestinians.

As Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary, and as Palestinians mourn our own homes and homeland that were taken away, I look forward to a universal day of independence from all forms of discrimination and oppression.

On that day, all people — Israeli, Palestinian, American and everyone else — can celebrate with all our hearts.

Ibtisam Barakat is the author of Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood. She can be reached at pmproj@progressive.org.