Crossing Borders

Since his participation in the Israeli military’s eviction of the Palestinians, the narrator has been haunted by what was done, and these feelings of guilt prompt him to tell his story. His experience as a soldier so impacted him that it has molded his very existence as a Zionist, causing him to wonder about and question the motives behind his actions. At first he tried to shrug off his own role in the violence, thinking that he was just following orders and doing what he had to do. But then he (and through this the reader)

Chapter three of Eyal Press’ Beautiful Souls follows Avner Wishnitzer, an Israeli combat soldier serving in the occupied territories during the Second Intifada. In the 6-Day War of 1967, Israel captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and has since kept the land under an Israeli military occupation. In 1987 to 1991, a Palestinian uprising involving resistance and civil disobedience, known as the First Intifada, occurred in the occupied territories. Consequently, Israel deployed many soldiers into the occupied territories, and an estimated 1,674 people were killed in total. The Second Intifada, a much more violent Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories, transpired from 2000 until 2005. In response, Israel enacted Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale military operation, in 2002 to stop the terrorist attacks and suicide bombings of the Second Intifada. An approximate 4,426 people were killed in the Second Intifada. Avner Wishnitzer’s public refusal to serve in the occupied territories was worth getting kicked out of Sayeret Matkal and being disgraced by Israeli society because it made people question the occupation and the treatment towards Palestinians. Even if Avner had been my father, I would have condoned his choices because I could create my own reputation in the military. Additionally, the current controversy over the Israeli occupation legitimizes his stance and actions for many Israeli citizens.

Israel and Palestine have been battling over territory, dominance, and political freedom for many years. After the Second World War, Israeli forces occupied Palestinian territory, ridding the land of Arabs. In response, the Palestinian people demanded control over their historic land, but the Israelis refused to relinquish power over the territory. In a matter of six days, the Jewish Israeli people conquered the West Bank all the way through to the Sinai Peninsula. After the war, the Israeli forces continued to take over Palestinian land by putting pressure on them to abandon their nation. Due to this ongoing conflict, Sahar Khalifeh utilizes violence and social constraints to explore the lives of Israeli and Palestinian men through vivid diction and descriptive imagery in the 1985 novel Wild Thorns.

‘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.

However, attempting to understand my identity in postmodern Palestine, I felt the disconnect between the Palestinian’s

The border control issue and illegal immigration focus can be traced back to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. While the act did impose limited employer sanctions, the legalization component set the stage for illegal immigration as a priority in political campaigns (Andreas, 2009). Many previous legal and illegal immigrants returned to the United States to take advantage of the opportunity to become legal residents. This fueled the illegal immigration patterns by providing a stronger base of support and additional networking for documents, jobs, and housing (Andreas, 2009). This influx of illegal, cheap labor became particularly noticeable in California, prompting the passage of Prop 187 to reduce the availability of social services to illegals in 1994. Each of these elements contributed to the beginnings of illegal immigration as a component of political campaign platforms.

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.

With the recent presidential elections with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, it has many people talking about the accusations that Trump said about Mexican and other ethnic groups. Donald Trump mentions that he is going to build a wall and will deport all Mexicans because the only thing they bring is crime. This leads me to the fact that most of the Latinos are mostly against him since he is mentioning bad things about the Mexicans. One of the biggest things that Latinos and Mexican Americans look for in a president, is if that president will help with immigration. Many people who come to the United States illegally are really afraid to be deported back to their home country, since the United States provides a better life for them. The immigration

Suad Amiry’s Sharon and My Mother-In-Law: Ramallah Diaries tells the story of every Palestinian's struggle under Israeli occupation. The sense of humor in Amiry’s memoir is what makes it a unique book. She writes about the altercations with Israeli soldiers, the fear and panic that come from being under constant violence, surveillance and curfews, living in a land where it is easier to obtain a legal ID card for your dog than it is for you to obtain one for yourself, and life in general. Amiry uses comicality to lighten what are often very heavy scenes, but still manages to convey their seriousness (143). The combination of frankness, humor, and pain all contribute to attracting attention to matters important to the Palestinians and the difficult

‘’In our home in Damascus, I lived with my wife and our children” begins Amir, a 29-year-old, Stateless Palestinian who arrived in Bangkok two years ago with his family. ’Before Ramadan the conflict in Syria became markedly worse. We heard gunfire and no one would go out onto the streets. My family and I stayed in our house for days. couple days later we had nothing to eat.”. After days boarded up in their house, Amir went out to get milk and diapers for his daughters. At a checkpoint, the Freedom Army stopped him and tried to recruit him. He refused, which meant certain death if he were to be stopped again in the future. “The last words from them were: the next time we see you, either you take your gun and stand beside us or you find someone

I enjoyed reading your post and you make some great points. From all of the news media reports, and reading informative documents it appears that the borders are more secure today than ever before. According to Andreas “border law evasion is as old as border law enforcement, and policing these border crossings has been elevated from the status of low politics to high politics”(2009, 3). I believe illegal entry into the country has been slowed with the new advancement in technology and the addition of the Nation Guard backing the patrol officers. With the “addition of aerial surveillance assets allows the Nation Guard to better support DHS by shifting surveillance from fixed sites to mobile”(DHS, 2011). With this upgrade the ability to

Joe Sacco’s graphic novel, Palestine, deals with the repercussions of the first intifada in Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land. The story follows the author through the many refugee camps and towns around Palestine as he tries to gather information, stories, and pictures to construct his graphic novel. While the book is enjoyable at a face level, there are many underlying themes conveyed throughout its illustrated pages and written text.

The Iron Wall is a documentary film released in 2006. It is all about the establishment of the West Bank Israeli settlements. According to the film, these settlements are a strategy to occupy the territory permanently. The construction of the controversial Israeli West Bank barrier is among the issues covered. The Palestinians for Peace and Democracy and the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees jointly produced the film. The Al-Jazeera Television Production Festival made the film an “Official Selection.” The film follows the timeline through which the establishment of the settlements took place. It examines the effects of the settlements on the peace process. Featured in the film are interviews with noted political analysts and peace activists from Palestine and Israel, including Hind Khoury, Akiva Eldar, and Jeff Halper. The subtitles of the film are in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

Israel has made travel between major Palestinian population centers (Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Hebron) in the West Bank easier over the last several years. Several major checkpoints in the West Bank that restricted direct movement between and into these cities have been removed or modified. However, in general this opening is less the result of an overall easing in movement restrictions than the result of the institutionalization of movement controls into a formal and permanent regime of restrictions that has replaced roadblocks with gates that can be opened and closed at the whim of the military and that has reconfiguring how Palestinians travel.

Moreover, Tartir shows that Dayton’s forces were always ordered by their seniors that they were not being trained to learn how to fight Israel, but to maintain law and order and implement the rule of law to that the Palestinians can live in peace and security with Israel (ibid). In addition to that, Tartir reflects that the USSC are not highly regarded in the Palestinian society and are “criticised for “brainwashing” the young Palestinians that were recruited, entrenching the security collaboration with Israel at the expense of Palestinian security and criminalising the resistance of the Palestinian People” (Tartit, 2017: 14). Local and international human rights organizations have accused these reformed forces of human rights violations and suppressing of freedoms (Human Rights Watch, 2014). The people report that forces trained by the USSC to be engaged in a brutal crackdown on Palestinians, and they were accused of an unprecedented level of human rights violations (Byrne, 2009; Dayton, 2009; Zanotti 2009; Thrall 2010 PASF Ala Tartir).