The Four Mothers Shifra Horn Analysis

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of property (happiness)” is a familiar phrase known from the United States’ Declaration of Independence. It says that we believe these are the three inalienable rights of all human beings and that it is the government’s job to protect these absolute privileges. Extensive advocation of these inalienable rights of man date back to the time of John Locke, over 300 years ago. In Emile Habiby’s novel, The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist, we meet Saeed, a Palestinian who becomes a citizen of Israel. Through his stories we are shown the inequality Arabs in Israel face and how the ‘inalienable’ rights we take for granted are being withheld from Israeli Arabs.

In Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom by Leslie Bell we follow the stories of three women contradicting the environments they were raised in, as an act of rebellion and individuality. These three women are distraught and confused about their identities and individuality due to conflicting obligations between traditional family values and their own desires. The environment each woman was brought up in was a catalyst in producing a “reactive decision.” As a result, their reactive choices lead to a greater sense of self and individuality. These three women display how their inner convictions are revealed and explored, as a result of the faith and beliefs that surrounded them. The oppressive expectations of their environments

Chapter three of Eyal Press’ Beautiful Souls follows Avner Wishnitzer, an Israeli combat soldier serving in the occupied territories during the Second Intifada. In the 6-Day War of 1967, Israel captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and has since kept the land under an Israeli military occupation. In 1987 to 1991, a Palestinian uprising involving resistance and civil disobedience, known as the First Intifada, occurred in the occupied territories. Consequently, Israel deployed many soldiers into the occupied territories, and an estimated 1,674 people were killed in total. The Second Intifada, a much more violent Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories, transpired from 2000 until 2005. In response, Israel enacted Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale military operation, in 2002 to stop the terrorist attacks and suicide bombings of the Second Intifada. An approximate 4,426 people were killed in the Second Intifada. Avner Wishnitzer’s public refusal to serve in the occupied territories was worth getting kicked out of Sayeret Matkal and being disgraced by Israeli society because it made people question the occupation and the treatment towards Palestinians. Even if Avner had been my father, I would have condoned his choices because I could create my own reputation in the military. Additionally, the current controversy over the Israeli occupation legitimizes his stance and actions for many Israeli citizens.

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.

‘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.

Although Abulhawa was not there at the time, the events she discussed are true events that have occurred. This novel incorporates literature of apartheid because of how the Israelis were considered to be the majority race in power. Throughout this entire novel, Israeli soldiers have attacked, killed and injured many innocent people because they wanted to ultimately eliminate the opposing race. They would verbally attack Palestinians by saying “Fucking terrorist” and “Get rid of every last sand nigger” (Abulhawa, 2010 pg. 238). It was not until the Israeli soldiers invaded Lebanon, where the most brutal and violent acts against Palestinians were committed. What seemed to be the most shocking of all is the fact that the soldiers who were killing innocent people never seemed to have remorse aside from one who helped and fed Hudda. The protagonist, Amal is the person the readers see through. The most difficult part to read within this novel, was soon after the Israeli soldiers invaded. Amal had witness her older brother Yousef lose the one thing he loved the most, Fatima. On page 227, Yousef stated “They ripped my Fatima’s belly with a knife!! They killed my babies!!”. Amal described how difficult it was to hear such harsh things being said about her country and it was even heavy for her to witness it as well. A lot of the ruthless

In Akallo’s book, she describes how she was trained with an AK-47, just like Ishmael Beah. Unlike Ishmael, who was a boy, she was forced as a sex slave and raped at several occasions (Akallo, 121). The topic of human trafficking is also explored in her book as she reports hundreds of other boys and girls used for illegal

In addition, I will examine the current state of political and human rights in Israeli occupied West Bank and analyze how they are approaching a level of apartheid. Finally, I will summarize the effects of these social tensions between Israel and Palestinians in the terms of how potential open conflict could reignite.

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

Like many Israelis, she had her mind changed by the Palestinians repeatedly rejecting Israel’s peace offers and by their use of brutal terrorism. She writes that she noticed, what she had previously regarded as legitimate criticism of Israeli policies was in fact something different, it was an ideology disturbing in its intention and content. She concluded that this criticism wasn’t about a two-state solution at all, but it ‘only very thinly masks a deep and visceral hatred for the state and its people that cannot be explained by mere criticism for the policies of some of its elected governments.’

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As Gibreel and Burnat walk alongside the barrier, the scenes of dead bodies and pools of blood leave Gibreel extremely unphased. Any toddler, seeing such devastation and horror would normally be shaken, however, for Gibreel this is nothing new. Being born in this conflict has impacted his life, it has hardened him at such a young age. Burnat wants his audience to see the horrific scenes that Palestinian youth encounter on a daily basis as a result of this conflict, something that I hope few children should ever be exposed to during their

The first to examine is near the end of the text while Sacco is leaving Palestine; he is sitting beside an old Jewish American . She states that it is a shame all the violence that goes on in the area, especially after all the hardships the Jews have already suffered. To contrast this, the reader must look back to an earlier instance in the book that is mainly textual . Here it talks about the opinions of the Zionists who first moved to Israel, as well as quotes from Prime Ministers of Israel. Quotes such as, “Palestinian Arabs have only one role left – to flee.” and “It was not as though there was a Palestinian people considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.” prove a type of hypocrisy. After all the Jews had suffered from other cultures and societies discriminating against them, one would think that they would not wish to inflict anything similar on another culture or society. Quotes like this almost seem reminiscent to those issued during the time of the Holocaust (i.e., the Jews are not human/people). Similar to this, instances of hypocrisy are apparent throughout the novel .

The graphic novel combines the ability of the image to elicit an emotional response and pull the audience in with the flexibility to allow the audience to go through the piece at their own pace. This allows Sacco to take more risks and gives him time to depict moments that do not have the shock value necessary to become the subject of traditional journalism, and these mundane daily moments are often the most powerful. One such moment occurs when Sacco goes to see the Egyptian boarder. He sees a woman yelling through the boarder fences and his companion informs him that she is having a conversation with someone in Egypt. The boarder, Sacco informs us, “was bulldozed right through Rafah, a Palestinian town,” leaving “a few thousand,” of the towns former inhabitants “stranded in Egypt,” (244). As he is leaving, Sacco sees two women “sitting on rocks waiting for a friend or relative on the Egyptian side to show up…”(244). In the next panel the women are seen through a matrix of the chain-link boarder fence and Sacco is visible behind them, following his companion away, under the caption, “we leave them to their waiting…” (244). These two panels contain no graphic images and minimal action, and yet they give such a haunting imagery to the plight of the Palestinians, a people forced to wait, eternally staring through fences at what was once home. Another simple but loaded moment that gives the reader a powerful sense of