Divine Intervention By Elia Suleiman

In ‘A Little Piece of Ground’, Elizabeth Laird writes of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, Karim and his experience of growing up in occupation. Laird tells Karim’s story; his failures and his wins, his hopes and desires, and his experience with friends and family while living under Israeli occupation. Karim’s perspective of characters changes when he understands what they have been through and what they have endured. Getting to know their real emotions and life events of people around him, Karim’s perspective on everyone changes. Laird illustrates it through Karim’s interactions with Jamal, interactions with Hopper’s mom, and interaction with the Israelis.

“States,” by Edward Said is an essay written by a Palestinian man with first-hand accounts of daily life in that region of the Middle-East. Said was renowned in the literary community as one of the most “distinguished literary critics and scholars...” Born in Jerusalem in 1935, Said, at the age of twelve, fled with his family to Cairo during the establishment of Israel as a Jewish state. In his essay, Said begins to discuss the state of the Palestinian people. The content of his essay is an explanation and an informative look on the Palestinian people, as well their situation and their identity. In our English Composition class, we have been challenged to look past the aesthetics of “States” and look not at just

His article argues that the Israelis won the Arab- Israeli War of 1948 and therefore were able to shape its history through their lens, but their version of the conflict is flawed and the information now available undermines what they claimed to be true. He stated that the Zionist version of the truth is just propaganda, spread in a way to make them look like innocent bystanders and the victims and the Arabs as the

Imagine living in a conflict that has divided two nations, literally, by a concrete barrier. This turbulent and heated confrontation has left many dead and even more injured. Welcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The documentary “5 Broken Cameras” is a portrayal of this modern day dispute through the personal lens of self-taught Palestinian cameraman, Emad Burnat. This compelling documentary provides a realistic presentation of the hatred that surrounds these two divided nations. Movie viewers will be drawn to this film is because it demonstrates the harsh realities of what it is like to live in the midst of a conflict and how the lives of those affected are altered as a result of this prolonged struggle.

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.

Any reference to conflict turns history into a reservoir of blame. In the presence of conflict, narratives differ and multiply to delegitimize the opponent and to justify one’s own action. Narratives shape social knowledge. The Israeli Palestinian conflict, both Jews and Muslims, view the importance of holding the territories through religious, ideological, and security lenses, based on belief that Palestine was given by divine providence and that the land belongs to either the Israelis or Palestinian’s ancestral home. Understanding these perspectives is required for understanding Palestinians’ and especially Israel’s strategy and role in entering the Oslo peace process. Despite

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

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 Palestinian narrative is one of a stable society uprooted by European Jewish settlers and subsequently subject to unjustified Israeli violence, emphasising “the history of Palestine, the poignant testimonials of Palestinians living under grievous conditions of occupation or exile or imprisonment, [and] the betrayals by international and national leaders.” Take

I watch the film expecting a profoundly political dramatization is filling a progressing discuss the Israeli-Palestinian clash. I assumed that I would hear warmed political talk and see difficult pictures from a standout amongst the most challenged and awful geopolitical issues looked by the advanced world. I was mixed up. There is eminent scholarly pacing in "A Borrowed Identity," Eran Riklis' very much watched adjustment of two personal books by the Arab-Israeli writer and columnist Sayed Kashua.

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.

To a Palestinian that has been displaced from his/her long time homeland, completely displaced by a foreign power. The tone of victimization is easily created. But to an Israeli, that has found security from, long term discrimination, in Israel’s own borders, it is easy for an Israeli perspective to claim the Jewish people had a legitimate claim to the land. Accounts from the Palestinian narrative will often, as Sylvain Ehrenfeld a writer for Ethical Culture, writes “[F]ocus on victimhood, their suffering and dispossession and their deep sense of injustice at being punished because of Europe’s treatment of Jews.”. Moreover, he goes on to elaborate that the Israeli have also created a tone of an unfailing connection to its land, and argues legitimacy for claim to the land that was found in former Palestine, present day Israel. He goes on to mention that both sides are guilty of creating their perspectives so single-mindedly. Both sides will often misrepresent the reality of the situation to gain the support of historians. This distortion of reality will in often cases skew accuracy, therefore creating a limitation to the recording of history.

The graphic novel Palestine, published by Maltan journalist Joe Sacco in the early ‘90s, is a journalistic piece that represents his recollections of two months spent talking to and living with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The casual narrative style, which some might say is too shallow for such heavy subject matter, in fact allows Sacco to avoid many of the pit falls that have made Western reporting on non-Western conflicts unhelpful at the very least and more often incredibly damaging.

“Where are you from?” is a question most people are asked through their lifetime and usually the answer is quick and straightforward. However, the question gets complicated when the answer is “Palestine.” Can someone really be from a place that is not even allowed to be written on a world map, a place that is constantly followed by a question mark if it actually exists. If place of origin is so tightly linked to understanding a person’s identity, how can Palestinians defiantly claim their identity? Especially if the individual is like author and poet Mourid Barghouti, who was exiled from Palestine for thirty years or filmmaker and writer Azza El-Hassan, who was born outside her family’s homeland and did not step foot in Palestine till she

‘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.