Eran Riklis A Borrowed Identity

On Friday night, the University of Washington played host to three of today’s greatest historians concerning the Israel/Palestine issue. Professor Anita Shapira, known for her contextual history of Israel ignited the room with her powerful comments about the circumstances for Arab removal from Israeli lands. Professor James Gelvin tiptoed on several touchy subjects, reiterating his concentration with causality history, nevertheless his historical background gave insight to nationalistic movements both groups have. The third historian, Professor Ilan Pappe concentrated the bulk of his talk on explaining the movement of Palestinian refugees while advocating for the acknowledgement of Israeli brutality in some Arab villages. Naturally, as it was the first time all three sides had come head-to-head, the debate got heated. This was especially true when comparing ideas of what the occupied territory should be described as. History of Modern Israel/Palestine student Erika Arias was able to mediate the debate, defuse tensions and at times draw laughs from the audience.

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.

The documentary, Promises, introduced the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the perspective of seven children. The film’s initiator, B.Z. Goldberg, initially interviews seven children, but gradually convinces the children to meet with peers of the opposite side in the conflict. Finally, by synthesizing the opinions of the children, the film achieves a lasting message at the end of the film -- everyone involved in the conflict is a human being, and thus one’s religion does not reflect his or her personality. Rather than enforcing this message upon the participants, the film has the children discover what it is like to be the person they hate -- a discovery which rather lingers throughout the subconscious of the film.

In the story of “Araby” the narrator is a young boy at school going age who is too quick to please a girl same as his age. He is too descriptive of his surroundings. He is well aware of the societal norms and ideas, but he has an illusion about those ideas and we could see him transform in the story towards the realization that what a real adult life is.

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.

Throughout the novel, the Jewish religion displays a negative influence on the protagonist. This negative impact limits the protagonist from adapting into a new community

The central theme of the book is the feelings, cultural, political, and personal issues that a person faced coming in a foreign country. Through al-Wazzan, Zemon Davis stresses the need to accept the fact that the cultures characterize the positive lifestyle choices and depictions. Zemon Davis uses the imagery of a bird to signify the migratory instincts. In the differentiation, the reader gets to

On its simplest level, "Araby" is a story about a boy's first love. On a deeper level, it is a story about the world he lives in that is full of ideals and dreams. "Araby" is a story of initiation, of a boy's quest for

Furthermore, the Israeli occupation of Palestine that the film depicts is a part of the 2000-2005 second intifada between the two nations (Manekin, 2013). Nablus, in Palestine is where Said and Khaled are based, and the mission is to take place in Tel Aviv across the border. A noticeable feature of the movie is the concept of deadness, the two main characters are not suicidal but the life they are trapped in has created a sense of them being dead already (Nashef, 2016) this is represented by the oppression and the lack of opportunity that is present. This theme can be further seen in their town – Nablus. Due to the conflict, the landscape and infrastructure is bleak, destroyed and very much discarded. The depiction of the lifestyle experienced during that period of conflict, highlighted to me potential motivations.

1. Amiry proves that the stereotypes of the Israeli and Palestinian people are misguided. Salim, Suad's husband, treats her very well. The same goes for many other Palestinian husbands. Suad is an educated architect. Despite that stereotype that Israeli and Palestinian’s hate each other, the book proves that not to be the case. Suad takes an Israeli man to the hospital due to a heart attack proving that compassion, at times, can override territories. She chooses an Israeli vet for her dog, Nura.

“Araby,” is a story of emotional passion carefully articulated by the author, James Joyce, to mark the end of childhood and the start of adolescence. It is told from the perspective of a young boy who is filled with lust for his friend, Mangan’s, sister. He lives in a cheerless town on a street hosting simply complacent families who own brown faced houses that stare vacantly into one another. The boy temporarily detaches himself from this gloomy atmosphere and dwells on the keeper of his affection. Only when he journeys to a festival titled Araby, does he realize that his attempt at winning the heart of Mangan’s sister has been done in an act of vanity. Joyce takes advantage of literary elements such as diction and imagery to convey an at times dreary and foolishly optimistic tone.

Thus it is clear that both Michael and Kashua explore complex human emotions that arise between individuals despite their surrounding environment. From the Arab perspective and from the Jewish perspective, these forbidden relationship bring together two, fully human people. Therefore, the idea that in Israeli literature “Arab characters are […] synthetic stereotypes, not individual, “full” people, based on real observation” could not be more false when it applies to Michael. Indeed, as Michael and Kashua depict, a loving, committed relationship cannot form unless both parties involved experience the same deep, human emotions that constitute “love.” As the reader sees in a story like Nomad and Viper, Perry’s characterization of the “other”

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.

This collegiate novel written by Netanyahu broadened my views on Zionism and on the various aspects that others habitually criticize about the topic. After getting hold of this book, I