Reading Reponse Week 6

http://rt.com/op-edge/final-settlement-palestinian-issue-472/

I chose to search articles from three different sources. This first one is about the demolitions of thousands of Palestinian homes throughout East Jerusalem from the news source, RT. I would like to start out with of all the media sources I ever looked at in my entire life, this is the only one I like and rely on. One, it is because they are not biased. They are not puppets of the western powers that manipulate what we see and this is why I choose to read their articles. Also they speak from the views of a Palestinian in their articles. Not only or not just interviewing an elected official from Israel. The photos they use are touching and illustrates the truth behind demolishing homes and how two percent of those thousands of homes had a published reason. We also will know that most homes did not have permits to build so this will imply that RT is neutral because they would not have mentioned this if they were biased and siding with either sides, if that makes sense.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25983130

However, look at this article. BBC has been known to be biased. If you can pinpoint the way this article is written. It is emphasizing the Israeli side of things stating that Netanyahu "gave an account of the Jewish people's deep connection to the land" while Abbas " avoiding the subject of recognising a Jewish state of Israel." This is biased in my opinion. I dislike the way that they briefly fly over this part and then just utter, he was not even trying to talk about this topic with the interviewer.

http://news.sky.com/story/1202574/israel-must-divide-ancient-west-bank-village

Then we return to take a look at Sky News, another media source whose articles are not biased such as BBC. This article is about the plans of wanting to extend the wall fragmenting more Palestinian towns and villages just as Betty spoke about last Thursday. You may read this article to decipher for yourselves.


http://news.sky.com/story/1202574/israel-must-divide-ancient-west-bank-village

Last but not least, this is an Arabic article from Sky News Arabia. They cover things that your mainstream media news do not cover. Such as support of other countries for Palestine and they are not biased in their writing. Of course I have a biased opinion though so I would lean towards reading these articles instead of the usual Fox and CNN media sources. Especially for the topic of Syria and what is going on there.

Discussion Response - Betty Herschman

I very much enjoyed the discussion with Betty from Ir Amim today. She was very informative despite the lags and cut offs of her voice due to bad internet there I am assuming. Another thing that helped a lot was the map that was presented showing that detailed layout of "settlements" and Palestinian territories.

While she was pointing out the many different areas that settlements were developed in, it just made me think again like how can Israel come and make settlements spread throughout Palestine smack dab in the middle? Everything that was laid out on that map showed clearly that everything was fragmented and staggered. There is no consistent presence of actual settlements however, with time, it is becoming more consistent especially with highways and parks just as Betty stated.

It is so nice and interesting to see people like Betty actually in Palestine working towards solutions to this long drawn out, dragged out conflict. I just kept thinking to myself, I hope to be there one day. Seeing and talking to people like Betty really motivates me a lot despite my absences from class due to my illnesses.



Final Project idea: I want to do a video and demonstration of Palestinian folk music, primarily focusing on Dabke. The traditional dance that originated from the Levant.

Reading Repsonse Ch 8-13

In chapter 11, Karen goes in to the history of the first Ka'aba in Islamic history which used to be Al-Quds and talked about the Khalifat that ruled after Rsool Allah's death (PBUH). However, when she was talking about his how Abu Bakr was his successor, and the Ummah broke apart, and Abu Bakr was trying to fight against rebel tribes. I was wondering, is she talking about when the Ummah split apart and became Shia or Sunni? I know that Imam Ali and Ahl Al-Bayt had many enemies and there was a lot of bloodshed over who would assume the position after Rsool Allah's death Alahu Assalam. I am just speaking from someone who would be Shia. I have been learning about Shia Islam and it really made me think about who exactly she was referring to about the rebel tribes. I know that the split came after but at the same time she was talking about Omar, Abu Bakr, Yazid and Muawiya, where was Imam Ali, Imam Hassan and Imam Hussein? What were they doing? Did they have any impact on Jerusalem as well? Did they ever go there too?

Then moving on to chapter 13, Karen stated that by now the Muslimeen had developed a system where all three religions could live among each other in Al-Quds. Then after some pages, there came a little information that mentioned "Shii". The Fatimid Caliphate, which are descendents of Seyadtna Fatima Alaiha Assalam, Rsool Allah's daughter. You might be wondering why I am speaking this way about Shia. I respect their values and their beliefs just as I would respect any other religion. Shia are Muslims and we all read the same Quran and go to the same place for Hajj. Karen stated in her book that the Shiite ideals were to conquer the entire Islamic World and crack down on teachings of the Sunnah. I am not sure if this is true. Shia Muslims follow Sunnah. Maybe back then it was different but they follow Sunnah. In fact, they take Sunnah very serious. From dissecting how Rsool Allah did things and to how he treated Imam Ali.


These things really made me think more and associate my response with Shia Islam. After reading these chapters, I felt as if this history became bias about Islam but I have yet to know about what other relationships did Shia Muslims have with Al-Quds.

Tina

Week 3 Reading Response

Jumping straight into the works of this book, I wanted to point out the very great detail Karen Armstrong goes into when writing. This book is easy to follow and easy to read.

In the first chapter, I was specifically interested in learning more about the Canaan. I read somewhere that the Palestinians' ancestors were Canaanites and then reading more about Canaan really gathered some of my thoughts for me. However, the author started out with saying that we know very little about the original inhabitants of Jerusalem. Most of which she writes about are from resources like the Hebrew bible (the Tanakh) and further texts such as these. It makes it almost impossible to think otherwise about the formation of Jerusalem and present day Palestine/Isreal from reading this book. To me, it is almost also a discouragement.

Further on in the book, she mentioned something I had already known or had a hypothesis of. She asked the question: "Who were the Israelites?" (22) In my own research I had thoughts to myself that the ancient people of Israel were all from Egypt because that is where they lived before coming to Canaan. Karen Armstrong mentioned in the book that Israelites, according to the Bible, originally came from Mesopotamia and temporarily settled in Canaan before relocating to Egypt because of a famine. It is just interesting solely because we know very little of anyone yet information keeps coming up and revealing itself from the works of historians and archeologists.

The first seven chapters really dissects the entire region piece by piece in order for us to get a glimpse of the history. I was not frustrated when reading the first parts of this book at all as I normally would be. I think the bigger picture here is that Jerusalem was not only the holy place for all three monotheistic religions but it once inhabited people of more ancient faiths and languages. For instance the Akkadians and Canaanite language then from what it seems paganism or polytheistic religions originally existed there.

I am really excited to read more of this book.

Questions:
 
1. Before reading Karen Armstrong's book, what exactly were your thoughts about who were the first inhabitants of Jerusalem?

2. Sometimes Karen derives her work from texts such as the Bible and the Tanakh, like we discussed in class about validity of these articles, do you personally think information from these resources are valid?

Journal One

As someone who is very interested in the formation of a Palestinian state, I really enjoy this class and I really like the group of students who get to share this experience with me. I see a lot of potential in this class to learn more about Al Quds and Palestine as a whole and I came into this class expecting this. However, after a few days of class I thought to myself maybe it will also open up my eyes more about where the Israeli state comes from. Also, with everyone in the class coming from totally different backgrounds and perspectives it should be interesting to see our dialogues as the class progresses. I appreciate every opinion and with us speaking upon the respect and acknowledgement topic, I think it makes everyone a bit more comfortable.

I try to keep up with news and politics in Palestine but now my focus is on Syria. I adore both countries and I adore the people of Palestine and Syria. This class will for sure inform me of more.

Here's a song for Gaza that Michael Hart wrote. It's in English too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfhoU66s4Y

Reading Responses

Hello please proceed to read my response about Palestine. 

The topic of Jerusalem has always been in my opinion, a very complicated subject. These excerpts really go into depth with the complexity of Al Quds. However, I really appreciate the neutral way that these authors convey their information although at times it was hard to depict if anyone was bias or not. Palestine itself is a complicated topic and in my personal experience almost everyone naturally has a bias opinion based on what they were taught and what they know of the topic.

In one of the readings, Jerusalem: then and now, the .. author stated, “Israeli governments, both Labor and Likud, have enforced a secret but strict quota on Palestinian housing construction, in order to insure that the proportion of Palestinians in the city did not rise above the 26 percent share they constituted in 1967 (7)”. I was especially not very surprised about this because until this day, Palestinians are still restricted to new developments and it is nothing new. What really triggers thought is, how can Palestinians’ rights be stripped away from them yet other people whom live in the same land have more privileges than Palestinians. It really boggles my mind. However, I am talking about modern times.

Jerusalem was taken over, captured and taken again many times over and it is no doubt that persecution took place whether it favored Jews, Christians and Muslims. They all did something unlawful to each other. As time progressed, most of the cultural, religious and racial diversity seemed to have learned to live amongst each other. However, an important detail needs to be recognized and I just recently realized this: a Muslim can be Israeli by nationality, an Arab can be Israeli, a Jew can be an Arab, and a Muslim can be Arab and so forth. With this thought, I think that it is best to also pay attention to the locations in which these diversities have learned to live amongst each other with maybe some minor conflicts. An example may be Eilat and up north Haifa, Israel, when Israeli government set up shop there, it became exclusively for Israelis. I am not so sure how but I knew many Palestinians with Israeli nationality who lived in Eilat. However, they do not consider themselves Palestinian anymore. They consider themselves Arab 48 or Israelis. This took a lot of time for me to accept. I am so passionate about Palestine and Palestinians that it upset me to think, “Whoa, your ancestors were Palestinian and now that you’ve adopted the Israeli culture and lifestyle, you consider yourself Israeli and not Palestinian.” This was my main thought. I was upset because why would anyone ever want to give up their Palestinian identity? There came many answers that followed this question within research and further thinking. Another example of the opposite of peace within these mixed diversities is Beit Omar, Palestine. It is a city in the West Bank some hundred miles from its neighboring city Halhoul or 7al7ul. These cities see activity from the IDF almost every day. Whether it is to interrogate someone or to demolish a home, this happens almost every day of the year.

Overall, I am passionate about seeing the peace that Palestinians deserve. It is very nice to see peaceful demonstrations and peaceful living among the main two conflicted diversities. These readings really sparked some expression in my thinking. 

Tina

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Tina, my Arabic nickname is Tota and I am a senior studying City and Regional Planning at Ohio State. While I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, my interests reached farther than anyone would have expected. I took Arabic at OSU however, I forgot how to communicate in classical Arabic. Outside of school I enjoy relaxing with music, drinking hot tea and researching about my interests, fishing, football and talking to my friends overseas.

I look forward to getting to know you all a little more.

Tota