Amal Israel Amirh Analysis

The essay States, by Edward Said, describes the trouble for Palestinians to find their identity due to the loss of their homeland. He also describes the situation of the Palestinians and the isolation that they feel through photographs that he had taken. Said has many different pictures throughout this essay and each of them play a part in supporting the main point of this essay. Said believes that, without a homeland, the Palestinians cannot have an identity and the Palestinians should not be content with being exiles forever. So the purpose of the pictures is to support and further strengthen this idea. The photographer wants the viewer to understand the struggle that the Palestinians are going through.

‘Wild Thorns’ by Sahar Khalifeh is an insightful commentary that brings to life the Palestinian struggle under the Israeli Occupation and embodies this conflict through the different perspectives brought forth by the contrasting characters. We are primarily shown this strife through the eyes of the principal character, the expatriate Usama, as well as the foil character of his cousin, Adil. Khalifeh skillfully uses literary devices such as emotive language, allusions and positive and negative connotations to highlight life under the Occupation. As the audience, these techniques help encourage us to consider the struggle more in depth, and due to the wide variety of characters, invite us to relate to them.

In addition, I will examine the current state of political and human rights in Israeli occupied West Bank and analyze how they are approaching a level of apartheid. Finally, I will summarize the effects of these social tensions between Israel and Palestinians in the terms of how potential open conflict could reignite.

Growing up in Palestine, I had contradicting Feelings towards my identity as a Palestinian. I often felt the euphoria and nationalism hearing the word Palestine, revolution, Israel, Yasser Arafat, and resistance. The ecstatic feeling of belonging to a glorious nation and dedicated countrymen equipped me with sufficient mental and emotional dosage to enjoy living in a war zone and ultimately a honourable goal worth sacrificing my life for- freedom.

Arab and Jew Wounded Spirits in a Promise Land by David Shipler gives an in-depth looked in his time and experience in the Middle East. He is able to show how both Arabs and Jews have found themselves in the midst of an ongoing battle for power and control over land. They both found themselves, not being to live among one another. During this time in the 1980s some were trying to find peace during a time of hardship and gloom, but many were still caught in the normal life many lived filled with hatred towards one another.

Ever since, Palestinians have had to adapt to new places and cultures in order to survive, which makes it more difficult for them to preserve their own. Said presents several examples of transculturation throughout the essay. For instance, the use of the Mercedes, even though Said describes it in negative terms, the use of the Mercedes has come in handy for Palestinians. Enduring one disaster after another, Palestinian identity is arduous to preserve in exile. It is a struggle of having no country. Our country is a big part of who we are. As we are born, we are destined to become a part of it. It becomes part of our identity. Things that we grew up with meant something to us. We usually treasure things that became part of our lives. Even unconsciously, we take hold of it. Home brings us memories, memories that we want to hold on up to our last breath.

Like many Israelis, she had her mind changed by the Palestinians repeatedly rejecting Israel’s peace offers and by their use of brutal terrorism. She writes that she noticed, what she had previously regarded as legitimate criticism of Israeli policies was in fact something different, it was an ideology disturbing in its intention and content. She concluded that this criticism wasn’t about a two-state solution at all, but it ‘only very thinly masks a deep and visceral hatred for the state and its people that cannot be explained by mere criticism for the policies of some of its elected governments.’

With the passage at hand, Dr. Ella Shohat discusses about the case of being an Arab Jew, a historical paradox, as one of many social elisions. Unlike the idea of intersectionality, binarism leaves “little place for complex identities” (Shohat, 2). As an American, Jew, and Arab, she speaks of the disparities amidst a war involving all three cultural topographies. Albeit she speaks from a subjective standpoint, she does not mention the issue of racial hygiene, class, geographic divisions, and gender. Passages from Guenter Lewy, Melissa Wright, and Philippe Bourgois will be used to discuss the way in which different positionalities might affect the analysis of “Dislocated Identities.”

In the 1990s there began a significant shift in social movements in Israel and Palestine. The history of this region has been marked by violence, inequality, and oppression for a long time. The complicated relationships between the two main powers in this area have developed over time and a variety of groups on both sides of the conflict have reacted with by calling for peace. The first intifada had a huge impact on who had the ablity to voice their concerns to fight the injustices occurring in this region. It was during this popular uprising that women’s movements first began to gain traction in both Israel and Palestine. These movements were often defined by traditional and constricting ideals of femininity, however over time they began to branch out with a more grassroots approach. Women’s movements in Israel have many similarities to those in Palestine and the Occupied Territories, however there are some significant differences that separate the women involved in each of these groups and the causes they choose to support. Gender equality is a complex issue with many implications for the modern peace movement in Israel and Palestine, and it is crucial to note both the ways in which these groups face similar challenges while also acknowledging the very different issues faced by Israeli and Palestinian women.

Rottenberg examines the divide in this novel by referring to the divide as a “transfer” or “expulsion” and it is used as a divisive meaning because of the state’s refusal to recognize its Arab citizens. This criticism sheds light on the true identity of the conflict: “Let It Be Morning is a disturbing account of anti-Arab racism within is a disturbing account of anti-Arab racism within the Jewish mainstream, and of the deep divisions within Palestinian society” (Rottenberg 140). The statement that is made throughout Rottenberg’s criticism is about the disrespect that is shown to Arabs in Israel throughout the novel. She makes a bold point about the divisive meaning behind the conflict, but it is valid because of the lack of respect and the overwhelming hatred that Arabs like Sayed Kashua receive everyday in that

How can the residents of an area that has been in turmoil for the past century ever move past the unforgivable actions of the others? While Tolan does not offer a solution for the area currently known as Israel-Palestine, he is attempting to increase his audience’s understanding of the events contributing to the complex

In his article shows Palestinian a hero protects Jewish safety. When he went to the refugee camp and saw the refugee dead by the slaying. The peace for the Palestine is very important because if people involved in the struggle will cause a huge number of death casualties, which mean the country lose a lot of population. In addition, he learns liberty form his American mother. The Jewish’s Zionism makes his dream of peace destroy. The Jewish victim’s revenge makes the Palestinian far away from peace hope.

The Arab- Israeli Conflict AO1: "What are the main differences between the beliefs and attitudes of the Jews/Israelis and the Arabs/ Palestinians towards the land now called Israel with the Gaza Strip and the West Bank? The Arab- Israeli conflict is one of the most interesting conflicts that have strained relations between the Muslims and the Jews which involves a small but significant piece of land known as Palestine (Israel today). This conflict is not rooted in modern times though, as this section of my coursework will explain. Both groups have extremely strong views on this topic, both historically and religiously important, which has lead to this stalemate between them.

Each emerges out of encounters with colonial understandings of the other, in which Palestinians and Jews being defined as others, the judge of the other, being the ‘enlightened’ European. Furthermore, the events and encounters that shape Zionism and Palestinian nationalism can be understood at various moments as the ‘same’ events. Neither Zionism nor Palestinian nationalism is destroyed by the sharing of these events in the name of nationalism as “political ideologies do not recognize nor reconcile with each other, nor do they determine who recognizes whom and who reconcile with whom.” Put another way, political ideologies, here nationalism, are capable of fully existing without the acknowledgement of the other, nor the ability to compromise with the other. Instead, both Zionism and Palestinian nationalism continue to claim legitimacy in the face of opposition and strive to be understood as legitimate heirs to the land called Israel, called Palestine.

The Arab-Israeli conflict displaced 750,000 Palestinians, and they are still not allowed to return to their home (AFSC, n.d.) . About 1.6 million Israeli Arabs (Abdalla, 2012), in Lod, have citizenships of Israel, but they don’t have the equal rights to Jewish people. (BBC, 2009).