Context shapes how we envision, plan, and action our futures. Benign social, economic, and political environments enhance our career vision, planning, and action. Hostile environments have the opposite effect: narrow/limited vision, lack of opportunity, fragile planning, leading to despair and lack of hope. This essay, devoted to the memory of Ronald Sultana, outlines the historical, social, legal, and economic context in which Palestinians have found themselves since 1947, and its impact on their lives, including the current destruction of population, property, and business in Gaza and the West Bank by the Israelis.