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
Tina,
ReplyDeleteI think your comment about how people label themselves is excellent. It is very easy for us to just imagine two polar identities, Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Muslims. This can cause us to make wrongful assumptions about groups of people. In the case of the Arab 48 and Arab Israelis, I wonder what their thoughts are with regards to their status in Israel, and how they are treated by Israeli law. Even more interesting to me is something we discussed in class the other day, those who label themselves Palestinian Jews. I like you and the Arab 48, have a difficult time wrapping my head around the concept of a Jew who also defines him or herself as a Palestinian. I think a lot of this difficulty comes from preconceived notions and assumptions we have about certain groups of people. Either way I commend your ability to understand and appreciate the differences in the ways people label themselves.
In the past I often ran into this situation where I didn't really understand how someone can be Palestinian with Israeli nationality. Honestly, for some odd reason I never knew that even existed and that it could be possible. I think this is something someone has to figure out and make a distinction for themselves when learning about the Arab-Israeli Conflict. For your answer about Arab 48 and Arab Israelis, I have/had friends who were Arab 48 and we spoke about this topic a few times. There was one friend who really caught me off guard when he asked why I love "the Palestinians". He is Palestinian himself but he regarded himself as an Israeli. I told him I sympathize with their struggles and I fell in love with everything they are. He couldn't grasp it, and he said what struggles? I told him, "How would you feel if your home was demolished when you got home from school one day?" ... His reply really shocked me but at the same didn't I understood why he said it, he brushed off my question and said, "Well I don't live in the West Bank so I don't know how they feel." I was really upset honestly. But I learned to accept him and we are really close friends now.
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