Souad's Burned Alive

‘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.

She realised that people of any age will do anything to assist what they are fighting for. Furthermore, Stack lived through a portion of the second Palestinian intifada. During this struggle countless suicide bombers came by day and Israeli tanks acquired Palestinian land in the West Bank by night. Stack describes this period of time as complete chaos, where, “violence fed violence. Blood washed blood”. Stack knew a Palestinian woman who was a victim of the brutality during the first intifada. She was tortured during the days of this time period for being part of an underground Palestinian political movement. Stack’s Palestinian friend was “tortured for days, beaten, abused, threatened with rape” by a barbaric Israeli interrogator. Although she faced strong hostility from the interrogator, she also faced kindness in the form of an anonymous Israeli man who “sat with her hour after dark hour” and attempted to help her get through the pain. This shows that an individual can interact with both negative and positive things throughout a conflict. Stack later faced a conflict when she wrote a feature about how the body parts of suicide bombers had caused a policy debate in Israel. This feature caused Stack to receive hundreds of hate mails regarding as to how she “humanized [suicide bombers]” by writing about them as actual people with families.

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.

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

Sometimes severe abuse in a child’s home can stir up even the most heinous crimes. The news story I am about to write about will refute the claim that a parent cannot teach a child such violent ways that the child when grown up with a family of their own goes and kills their own children or family members because of differences like religion and disgracing a family name. Jerusalem Posts’ of “Family, Honor, Killing” reported by Larry Derfner wrote of a woman named Samar Hasson, an Arab Israeli woman who was murdered by “hanging from a tree” in “the Druse section of Shfaram.” She was only twenty-three. Three men were “charged with” her murder, Hasson’s two uncles and her father. The reason Hasson was murdered was one that was ingrained into her murderer’s minds since they were small children. “Family Honor.” Her father and uncles were raised to believe shame and disgrace will be put upon a family when a woman is believed to be dating a man with a different religious background and that action is punishable by corporate punishment and/ or death. Councilman Ziad Hadj was asked why so many family murder incidents are so common between the Arab community “in Israel” and in other “traditional Middle Eastern Societies?” The councilman’s

Captain Beatty, the chief of the firemen in Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451,” has his own view of the world. Beatty’s view is that he and his firemen needs to preserve everyone in the society pleased. Whether the happiness comes from the entertainment of T.V. or from burning the novels someone opposes to, Beatty only wants to examine people delighted with what they have. If someone has a problem with a text, the firemen are to burn that text immediately, it does not matter if others favor the novel or not. Beatty’s view of the world is that firemen were given an advanced description of their jobs for their peace of mind, along with burning everything that is a detriment to people’s

Throughout Edward W. Said’s essay, “States”, he discusses the past of the Palestinians and expresses the struggles that arose and still occur. Palestinian nationalism was once an independent force in the Middle East. Yet, when the Palestinian’s homeland came to an end, destruction and dispossession began. Various wars emerged leaving the Palestinians to suffer. During this time period of violence, Palestine was being destroyed. In the process, Israel began to take over. Said tries to get readers to see what people don’t see about the hardships that came with being Palestinian. He writes about the destruction of their culture, land, value, homes, and their way of living due to violence.

Topic sentence In the Middle East numerous rights have been violated according to the United Nations, these rights are getting violated by the government, terror groups, and local Militias. One thing that should be kept in mind that culture and other practices aren’t the same in every country so we must remember that the western way isn’t always the right way.

One form of trauma Palestinian children faced during the Gaza War in 2008 was psychological maltreat from their parents. Both parents are dealing with their trauma of the war and are taking it out on their child in different ways. Fathers tend to be physically and mentally abusive to their child whereas mothers tend to neglect their child. According to Palosaari’s article, the children go through “emotional abuse [and] emotional neglect” (958). The way Palestinian parents are raising their children has been greatly affected since the war. Fathers tend to pay more attention to their child and focus on disciplining him more when he does not do what’s expected of him. Mothers tend to neglect their child because they do not want to cause any conflict

I rolled out of bed to the familiar sound of air raid sirens. Half asleep, I slipped on my shoes and followed my dad. Our shelter was a building originally fortified as a synagogue. Since the walls were extra thick, it had been converted as a shelter. The war had started with the kidnapping and murder or three Jewish boys. In response, the Jews kidnapped a Palestinian boy and murdered him as well. From there, it escalated quickly. The Palestinian’s were soon firing rockets into Jerusalem. We were staying right outside Jerusalem and often had to wake up between two and three almost every morning.

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

The psychological long-term effects of political violence on children are severe and extremely traumatizing. Also proven by www.healingdivides.org, many more children have developed psychological impairments than physical disabilities. In a recent study, it was found that 50% of injured children have developed post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, around 34% of Palestinian school-going children have developed the sam disorder. In another study based on 1000 school aged Palestinian children by www.healingdivides.org, 547 children reported that they have experienced at least one largely traumatic event during their life. The most common events were of political traumas by the Israeli Army. Next, among 270 children who had experienced political traumas by the Israeli Army; 125 were injured, 96 had a family member killed, 45 had been imprisoned/beaten up and four had their houses destroyed. The remaining 341 children of the 527 had been diagnosed as having full post-traumatic stress. This study displays how the Israeli Army is having a huge impact on the children and their lives. It is hurting them in ways which are unimaginable. Moving on, it has been confirmed from www.healingdivides.com, that girls between the ages 5-14 are most vulnerable. This is because they are experiencing more hormones and tend to get more emotional, causing more impact mentally on their brain. Among the youngest children, the most common signs of distress are crying and clinging to their parents. According to www.healingdivides.org, children of ages 6-12 experience more of aggression and rebellion as signs of fear and anxiety. Lastly ages 13-18 are most likely to suffer from risk behaviour, feeling of helplessness, frustration and withdrawal. More than 500 children had experienced horrible heart-breaking events which will stay in their minds forever. Even though many have been injured, more have been mentally maimed which in

The completely disheartening first-hand accounts of the acts of violence and depraved inhumanity are haunting and frightening to say the least. However, this is not a completely despondent read as author Paula Fouce has done an excellent job of establishing an enlightening balance as she brings into perspective some hope with her contemplative and illuminating discourses with religious leaders, such as: Mother Teresa, and The Dalai Lama, as well many other teachers, political figures and lay

Although this incident had occurred in almost 70 years, the social disparity is seen to this day. In 2017, Donald trump, president of the United States, had launched a Muslim Ban. This ban has discontinued the entrance from major Muslim based countries. This action is exposing the judgment and oppression on a certain religion just as Hitler had done on the Jews. Rather than killing the Muslims, Trump managed to forbid them to seek refuge from the war zone on their land. This novel effects people’s perspective about society by showing them that the world hasn’t changed much and showing fear on how an incident as the holocaust is possible to occur.

“The thorns aren’t there to produce roses, they’re there to protect them.” Wild thorns is a interesting story about a man of Palestinian descent and his interactions with the Jews living in Palestine. This story about a man named Usama is an intriguing look at how the Palestinian people interacted with the Jews who were in governmental control of the region in which the story takes place. This story also shows the growing contentious relationships that were growing between the Palestinian muslims and Israeli Jews during the mid-twentieth century. Even though some thought the muslim citizens had brought it upon themselves,