Violence has been resurrected in the Holy Land. The search for the three Israeli teens last month led to a crackdown in the West Bank―the other Palestinian territory occupied by Israel―leading to the detention of almost 300 Palestinians. Then followed rocket fire between the Gaza Strip and Israel, having been initiated from Gaza. Israel continued airstrikes after the teens’ bodies were recovered, and after their funeral, there was a retaliatory kidnapping and immolation of a Palestinian teenager by Jewish extremists.

Protests and riots over this latest killing then occurred in Jerusalem, and two days later, on July 8, the Israeli Defense Force launched Operation Protective Edge against Hamas, the Islamic militant organization that governs the Gaza Strip.

This operation is the first major offensive into Gaza since the conflict in 2012, and the deadliest since the Gaza War in 2008-09. Having begun solely with air strikes, it has since evolved into an Israeli ground operation. As of July 22, 28 Israeli soldiers and two Israeli civilians have been killed so far, with 632 fatalities having been recorded on the Palestinian side, of which, according to United Nations numbers from July 20, 72 percent were civilians.

As the death toll has risen, consciences have flared, and progressives and leftists beyond have gone into the usual drill of outrage that accompanies every instance of escalation in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

This offensive has been seen as the latest step in the long-running Israeli tactic of keeping Palestinian morale and militant resistance low, which Israeli authorities have described as “mowing the grass” and as “maintenance.” But though many protests in solidarity with Palestine have been organized worldwide, most haven’t been spurred to move beyond social media, and Facebook and Twitter have been rife with condemnation over the disproportionate bombing of what is already a refugee population.

Underneath this containment to the Internet, to a large extent, is a sentiment of powerlessness, perfectly expressed by a friend of mine in a Facebook comment: “For I feel helpless and am with naught to do: a toast tonight to the inglorious dead, may they have suffered only briefly.”

Many may not be aware of the ongoing demonstrations occurring even in Raleigh, and if aware, may not be able to make it to them. But regardless of that, no one is helpless and with naught to do.

After all, the root cause of the conflict, as one must remember, is Israeli colonialism, an illegal seizure of territory that violates the Geneva Convention.

My point being, though one may feel helpless when the region is already awash in blood, there is an underlying cause that perseveres between periods of intensive conflicts, which can be targeted. And in fact, unless there are persisting campaigns addressing this underlying cause―rather than outbreaks of protests against a background of passive, individualized grieving―this is going to happen again.

But in our world of transversally residing power, we can find some or the other manifestation of this underlying cause wherever we are. Indeed, many boycott, divestment and sanction campaigns have been building a movement for Palestinian rights worldwide, and as long as such possibilities for participation exist, no one is powerless.

At N.C. State itself, as I pointed out on occasion of the 2012 offensive in Gaza, Caterpillar Inc. is represented on our Board of Trustees through Jim Owens, Caterpillar’s former Chairman and CEO. (Owens worked for Caterpillar for 38 years, and was the CEO and Chairman when he joined the Board in 2009, less than half a year after the Gaza War.)

Caterpillar has been Israel’s bulldozer company of choice since 1967, its equipment having been used to demolish more than 18,000 homes in the Palestinian lands, causing several deaths in the very demolition process, and displacing more than 70,000 civilians.

Owens himself has received thousands of letters notifying him of his (former) company’s human rights breaches, but Caterpillar has remained unresponsive.

Furthermore, Caterpillar is also one of the most prominent invitees to the Poole College of Management’s annual career fair, and N.C. State professors and students have been doing research for Caterpillar. Also, at least in the past (as of 2005), N.C. State has invested its endowment in Caterpillar, owning 2,500 shares of Caterpillar Inc. stock.

With the presence of such a major player at N.C. State, each student, professor and staff-member at the University is in a special position to affect the abuses against Palestinians.

But even if one does not live somewhere susceptible to a campaign against as direct an agent as Caterpillar, the possibility of action still remains, if one addresses a level yet deeper than the aforementioned root cause: Why is there Israeli colonialism at all?

Because of the failure of the modern arrangement of liberal democracy, which has allowed for hegemonic state alliances that can dominate certain peoples and classes based on superior economic―and thus military―strength, and with that override a fair allocation of resources and territory. And also because of complex causal chains of ethno-religious antagonism, which too could be traced back to schismatic economic setups wherein which one group can control (or is perceived to control) undue capital, and then exploit other groups.

Even if one’s community isn’t beleaguered with corporate devils such as Jim Owens and Caterpillar to divest from and kick out, the interconnected hierarchies that lead to unjust policies such as Israel’s occupation permeate everywhere. So, participation in any struggle against forms of oppressive divisions, such as the drawing of borders and the ownership of private property, is indirectly going to aid the Palestinian cause.

One may legitimately feel that little is immediately in our hands. None of us can call Benjamin Netanyahu and a Hamas representative over for coffee to broker a ceasefire. We can’t swish a wand and veer missiles away from Palestinian villages. But we can walk the talk and exercise the immeasurable power that we see to be in our hands if we look at the bigger picture. And looking at the bigger picture, at least, is easy: One has but to take one’s hands off the computer keyboard and use them to slide open a window, to gaze away from the reports of reality in the browser window, and take a look at the world outside.