When I Saw Me

“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 my opinion, I don’t know if any other approach would have been this effective. This allows we as readers to see more into the lives of Palestinians, rather than just read about it.

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.

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.

Imagine that one day, soldiers storm to your village and demand you to leave the area temporarily due to security reasons. The next day, you find out that your house and the entire village have been pillaged and destroyed, leaving you with no shelter. Well, this was just the beginning of the many tragic incidents that Elias Chacour experienced during his life as a Palestinian. In the book, Blood Brothers, Chacour recounts the events of his life as a testament of peace and reconciliation among all ethnic and religious groups in Israel. In the book, Chacour uses a first-person narrative structure, the theme of peace, and logos in his story to urge the readers to re-evaluate their deeply held biases on issues involving the conflict and to become

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.

‘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.

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.

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 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

Years before I found a home in my mother’s swollen belly, my identity had already been conceived by both violence and beauty—two emotions which made love on the war-torn pages of immigrant stories collected on my parents’ spines. As a child, the contents of these stories transported me back to our native Afghanistan, where Soviet bombs converted my mother and father from citizens to refugees—strangers on their own soil. Running my fingers through the pages, I felt the blisters on my father’s hands and verses from the Quran on my mother’s lips as they pieced together the fragments of our home and restored a new life for me and my siblings in the United States. Years later in what was the beginning of a lifelong struggle with my identity, I closed

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.

Imagine living in a conflict that has divided two nations, literally, by a concrete barrier. This turbulent and heated confrontation has left many dead and even more injured. Welcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The documentary “5 Broken Cameras” is a portrayal of this modern day dispute through the personal lens of self-taught Palestinian cameraman, Emad Burnat. This compelling documentary provides a realistic presentation of the hatred that surrounds these two divided nations. Movie viewers will be drawn to this film is because it demonstrates the harsh realities of what it is like to live in the midst of a conflict and how the lives of those affected are altered as a result of this prolonged struggle.

Kanafani’s novella “Returning to Haifa”, is an uplifting tragedy that talks about two Palestine refuges, Said and Saffiya, trip back to Haifa after they lost their child in exile. Both were still living in their rough past, enduring all the memories from their rough past. Later in the story, they find out that their firstborn son Khaldun is grown up to be a Jew working in the Israeli military. Kanafani uses style and figurative language to aid the readers understanding of with the harmful repercussions associated with loss the characters experienced.

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.