Mourid Barghouti's Where Are You From?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the one of the world’s oldest conflicts, and it is still an ongoing problem in the world. Zionists and Arabs: two groups with conflicting beliefs who both claim Israel as their own. In wake of the Holocaust the U.N decided to gift the Jews a homeland for the lives lost in the genocide. In 1947, the U.N Partition divided the land of Israel (Historic Palestine) into two separate states: Arab and Jewish. Since then, the state of Israel has been the center of conflict between the Arabs and the Zionists. As time passed the Zionists gained more land from winning the Six-Day War, and consequently the Palestinians had to live as refugees in other Arab countries. Additionally, more than 75% of the land belonged to

rather than a reward, but the message that isn't communicated is that exile is both. Palestinian

The translator uses many strategies in framing narratives, including frame ambiguity, to express her point of view. As a result, the researcher here translates the word "اليهود" in Arabic into “Zionists” in English. The translator wants to express the fact that real Jews at ancient time are religious and they have principles unlike the Jews in this context who take a land that is not theirs by force and they continue to use violence and to kill innocent Palestinians with no right. Consequently, they do not deserve to be called Jews but Zionists. To deport somebody means to force him to leave a country, usually because he breaks the law or because he has no legal right to be there .

Edward Said's States is an excerpt from his book After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives. It's a story about Palestine, once a country, but now spread out into a million pieces of the people that once called it home. The pieces being more of memories of a time when Palestinians could be who they are, not a scattered and forgotten people. They all face a new struggle, a struggle to find their identity. "Identity- who we are, where we come from, what we are- is difficult to maintain in exile. Most other people take their identity for granted. Not the Palestinian, who is required to show proofs of identity more or less constantly." (Page 546) Said, being Palestinian himself, tells us this story in what was called a

“Those who had no choice but to flee for their survival and the survival of their families became refugees, seeking safe havens in other parts of Europe and beyond. At first, Jews were allowed to settle in neighboring countries such as Belgium, France, and Czechoslovakia, but as German occupation spread across the continent, these countries were no longer safe and refugees became increasingly desperate to escape. The life of Jewish refugees was described in this way: “[The refugees] were welcomed nowhere and could be assimilated nowhere. Once they had left their homeland they remained homeless, once they had left their state they remained stateless; once they had been deprived of their human rights they were right-less, the scum of the earth” (America, 2017).

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.

“States” by Edward Said defies the traditional argumentative essay, instead taking the informative route. Said goes through the essay informing us about how it feels to be a Palestinian. From that we learn from his perspective as well as others the world viewed from a Palestinian viewpoint. Throughout the essay Said really sticks with the word “exile” and I feel as if he we want us to not only understand that they have been exiled from their native land but from everywhere. That there is no safe place for a Palestinian.

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.

Since the Independence of Israel in 1948, there has been a greater tension between the Israelis and the Palestinian community. It is very important to know that both have been living Israel before it was considered an independent state. Not only Palestinians have been in conflict with the Israelis but also Arabs and Muslims. They might not have the same issues with Israel as the Palestinians do, but they both dislike Israelis for different reasons. Palestinians issue has been over property ownership while the Arabs and Muslims community has been over religious reasons. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that Israel belongs to

Palestinian identity has lasted the test of time through exile, diaspora, and attempts at cultural white-washing. It is through these situations that Palestine has created a unique sense of identity, unlike many nation-states. The Palestinian identity has come to transcend borders, nationality, and mediums. It is not only represented in politics and protest, but in personal expression and the arts. This paper argues that both national identity and cultural productions of Palestine represent the diaspora through noticeable adaptation based on location and support the idea that Palestinian identity isn't singularly definable.

After I describe the situation, I am going to intersect it with Edward Said’s quote,"They are given special cards identifying them as 'Palestinian refugees,' and even where they are respectable engineers, teachers, business

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

Cleavages across the Palestinian diaspora as well as within particular segments of it are complex, due largely to the tortuous history of the Palestinian case. The initial response of neighbouring host states to the Nakba or catastrophe of 1948 was to offer Palestinian refugees protection and assistance, without prejudicing their claim to return home. Two ultimately incompatible policies were adopted by these states: giving Palestinians residency rights, while at the same time opposing full integration as being inimical to return to Palestine (Weighill 1999). Commitment to residency rights among host states has waned over time, partly as a result of the threat that Palestinians were held to pose for host states (ibid; Shiblak 1996). Israeli

Throughout the period of World War II, many Jewish people had fled to Israel seeking a place for sanctuary due to Hitler’s reign of terror, but who knew that one of the most largest movements in the history of Europe would cause one of the biggest renowned issues that still remains today. We can easily conclude that both Palestinian and Israeli people both believe that Israel is a land of sacred, where both religions had made history in this land. Although one of the biggest issues that still remains today is who really deserves the land the most. The Palestinian people currently live in the land of Israel before the Jews had made their movement, but after letting in countless Jewish refugees into their land, the Jewish people had realized

In the chapter titled “Reflections on Exile,” Edward Said discusses the different aspects of being an exile. His discussion of exile includes what it means to be an exile, the feelings that being an exile produces in individuals, exile in relation to nationalism, and the role of exile in the modern world.  Said first defines being an exile as a state of terminal loss. He states, “the achievements of exile are permanently undermined by the loss of something left behind forever” (173).  He then contrasts this terminal loss with the cultural impact that exile has had on the modern West.  He states that, “modern Western culture is in large part the work of exiles,” (173) and, “our age[...] is indeed the age of the refugee, the displaced