I remember the first time I ever heard a US politician publicly defend Palestinians.

It was April 14, 2016, and I was watching a Democratic presidential debate between the handpicked successor to Barack Obama and this grizzled, self-styled democratic socialist that seemed angry about everything. The latter, Bernie Sanders, decided to do something unprecedented that night when pressed by Wolf Blitzer about his views on the Israeli army’s conduct during the 2014 Gaza war.

Having previously described Israel’s actions, which killed over 1,500 innocent people and left more than ten thousand injured, as “disproportionate,” Bernie went further that night and declared that “in the long run if we are ever going to bring peace to that region which has seen so much hatred and so much war, we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity.” I was stunned to hear those words, as a young Palestinian-American used to seeing US politicians ignore or denigrate the Palestinian cause.