Personal Narrative-Palestinian Occupied Territory

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

As of recent years, with the rise of right-wing, nationalistic politicians in Israel, the hunger for settlement of Palestine has increased. Seeing the land as theirs to take, more and more Jewish settlements have been improved and expanded on in the West Bank, culminating and high profile confrontations between the new Jewish settlers and the Palestinian

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.

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.

The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict has always been a well debated political issue and has induced massive migrations to more stable countries, such as the United States. Specifically, Chicago was a city of interest to many Palestinians who were seeking refuge at the time the conflict ensued. During the 1960’s, Palestinian migrants began to flock to Chicago in hopes for a better life. My grandparents left the war-struck region in 1967 to migrate to Chicago in search for a better life.

The killing and maiming of children, something done by both sides of the war, is done in complete disregard of the UN Resolution 1261 which “strongly condemns the targeting of children” and calls upon the involved parties to “comply strictly with their obligations under international law.” Children in this war have grown up fearing that a bomber or soldier could kill them at any time and with no warning. This, in my opinion, means that the international community has clearly failed to encourage the involved parties to respect the points laid out in that resolution. After learning about the treatment of Palestinian children by the Israeli army, I am appalled at the lack of action on an international scale against such acts as shooting a twelve year old child fifteen times. The desires and ideology of state actors should never be placed above the safety of

Edward Said’s “States” features an insightful, in depth analysis of “Orientalism” as it applies to Palestinians and Israelis. He begins with a description of Palestine and the Palestinian condition using photographs to demonstrate a more humanized perspective of these transient people. Said reflects on his childhood in Palestine and draws from personal experience to paint a picture of a people without a home, or to be more accurate, people without an identity. A rhetorical analysis reveals the levels to which Said’s persuasion actually manages to persuade the audience. Said’s use of pathos is strong and well developed due to his use of anecdotal evidence and his insistence on humanizing the issue, while his ethos is considerably boosted by his personal experiences in Palestine, with Israelis, and his comprehensive study of

In the mainstream news, there are many major events that are ignored and unreported by the U.S. media. Unfortunately, it sometimes seems that people’s lives are not important or valuable anymore. Instead, they give more attention to what is less detrimental. Killing is killing and injustice should not stay uncovered. We are always known as the truth tellers, fact checkers, and cover both sides because this is what America stands for. But, the U.S. bias coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict must come to an end. In fact, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has been referred to as the world’s most intractable conflict is almost ignored and not truthfully covered by the U.S. media. It all started when Jews decided that there should be a Jewish state somewhere in the

anti-Gaza war demonstration in Israel since the outbreak of hostilities more than one month ago. (Rothman-Zecher ) Israeli politician Hadash MK Mohammad Barakeh stated in Hebrew and Arabic, “We are building a partnership against the occupation, for a free Palestine. We are here for a two-state solution, for life and a future for people in Gaza and the South.” (Rothman-Zecher )

Barghouti sees Palestine for himself, as well as for them too. His happiness at being back tinged with blame. "We have achieved a state of history where the term 'occupation' is no more an awful or disgraceful word: the US guards its control of Iraq and Afghanistan," according to Barghouti. "Israel has been involving Palestine throughout recent decades and anticipates that the Palestinian individuals will say thanks to her for that. In any case, hold up a moment, not all occupations! Israeli occupation has transformed the lives of each Palestinian into a 'delayed life.' The 'prompt' are demise, jail, uprooting, and attacks. Anybody inspired by insights can backpedal to figures to see the degree of pulverization of the Palestinian economy, training, culture, and property. If you add to that the debasement of the Palestinian Authority and its disappointment, you can envision the wretchedness of life under such conditions. Regardless, history reveals to us that all occupations end. In Ramallah, the occupation is less unmistakable, subtler, less mobilized. Checkpoints are no less than two kilometers outside the city, and capture assaults are for the most part constrained to the confined outcast camps on the city's

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

The movie “5 Broken Cameras” by discusses a story about a Palestinian farmer known as Emad Burnat. Through this movie, Burnat captures the brutalities him and his community face when trying to protest against the army setting up a barrier between their hometown and a Jewish settlement. A few of his brothers were hurt significantly from the soldiers throwing tear gas and capturing other individuals. Many of the community members where furious with the tradegeies that took place during their protest. Yelling at guards, the community members were not treated faily as the soliders were pushing and fighting indivuals as an attempt to back people off from the wall being built.

Within the context of human history there have been many unfortunate events. Whether it is controllable by man, or nature. The world can be a formidable foe, especially In case of the former. Man against man, the eternal struggle. Since ages long forgotten to the folds of time, man has waged war against himself. Likewise can be said regarding the conditions in which present day Palestinians find themselves in. A world not of their making, yet the are forced to live within the conditions others have created for them. For decades, they have been a people without a nation to call home. A people that are constantly met with apathy and malcontent, a people that have been removed from what they call home. Since the creation of the state of Israel, Palestinians have found themselves at a significant loss. They have been displaced, to say the least. With the lack of enthusiasm for Palestinians within the Israeli state, and with much of the former territory they occupied now sanctioned as Israeli land, significant groups of culturally similar people are without a home. This is in part due to expansion by the Israeli forces, and the expulsion of Palestinian people in the process. Yet, with many suspected allies, such as the neighboring Arab states of Syria, Egypt and Jordan. Surely refugees would have somewhere to turn? The painstaking truth is that these refugees often do not receive the proper treatment required by the nations housing them. Infact, in many cases they are treated as

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.

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