Discussion Response: Priorities

At the end of class today, something was mentioned that really stood out to me. As we discussed the importance of LGBTQ rights in Israel-Palestine and the greater Arab world, the idea of solving the 'big problems' first and then how to classify issues by importance arose. Like most people, I have my own set of ideas on what is right, what is wrong, and what should be given preeminence. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, and this is usually okay, because most people don't force their priorities and opinions upon me, either. However, in the Middle East and especially in a city like Jerusalem, one person's opinion on the urgency of a matter does not only offend others, it can impact their rights, their livelihood, and their day-to-day existence. Disagreement takes on a whole new meaning.

In speaking with both Shabbat of a Lifetime and Jerusalem Open House this week, I was given a new perspective on two organizations' list of priorities. Shabbat of a Lifetime is an organization dedicated to giving outsiders an authentic, Israeli Shabbat dinner: their focus is on the daily life and culture of ordinary people in a deeply conflicted country. This is a legitimate opinion-- many Israelis have taken the stance of 'moving on'. They want to live their lives and have families, just as all people should. Others, however, might take offense to this: there are not equal rights between Palestinians and Israelis, so all else is a moot point. They would argue that an extended conflict does not make it an unimportant conflict. Open House (and Alqaws, even though we did not speak with them) is focused on the specific rights of LGBTQ people in Jerusalem. Once again, this is appropriate: no one should have to live under the threat of violence and discrimination just for being who they are.  However, many disagree on the prioritization of these organizations. Even those who support LGBTQ rights might argue that there is a larger issue at hand: peace between Israel and Palestine.

I am not trying to support or debunk the decisions that either of these groups have made on what they believe the most important problem in Jerusalem is. Rather, I am simply considering the effect prioritization has on personal relationships, a community, and, in this case, a larger conflict. Like I mentioned above, I believe that each person has the right to decide what it most important in their life. However, I come from a world where prioritization has relatively low-stakes, and Jerusalem is teaching me to reevaluate my opinions even halfway across the globe.

1. To what would you delegate the highest priority in the Israel-Palestine conflict?
2. In a world where everyone places importance in different places, where does one find solutions?

Reading Response: Territory and the Meaning of Place

The importance of land to twenty-first century Americans often does not extend beyond our backyard. While we may love our hometown, most of us do not share the passionate zeal many Israeli and Palestinians have for Jerusalem.

While I was aware of this on a superficial level, reading the article by Shlomo Hassan helped me to develop this understanding on a whole new level. Territory is not just a piece of earth in one's ownership; rather, it symbolizes of thousands of years of history and religious pride, making it a point of high contention. It also separates and segregates-- once established in a place, it is often easier to turn inwards, thereby ostracizing those on the outside. It was fascinating to read about the way the city as separated itself by race, economic class, and religious sect.

Through our readings and class discussions, I have learned much about the wall and and separation of Israelis and Palestinians, but I did not realize the extent of the divide between secular and Haredi Jews before this week's reading. It seems counterintuitive to me that the most religious Jews would be anti-Zionist: against the formation of a Jewish state in the homeland. There are also many more ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel than anywhere else, and, for the most part, they live off a stipend from the government... if the State of Israel disintegrated, what would they do? If anyone knows more about this and would like to explain or point me in the right direction, please do!

Project Outline

My initial idea for the final project was to work with the women from an English language program where I volunteer. Unfortunately, I will not be able to continue on this trajectory, so I've rethought the project and decided to try something entirely new.

I love to cook. Food is central to all activities in my family and cooking is how I have bonded with my aunts, uncles, and cousins growing up. When I think about Jerusalem, then, my first thought is about what and how people eat. What are the most common/popular Israeli and Palestinian dishes? What makes them so loved, and who makes and eats them? Is there anything particular to the city?

After doing some initial research, both online and (hopefully) with some primary sources, I'm going to start cooking. I want to try my hand at these dishes, reinvent them, combine them, and see what happens. I will photo/video-document my experiments and if I am successful in any way I will certainly bring something to class to share.

Although I won't be able to follow through with my original idea, I am excited to experience Jerusalem at home in my own kitchen. Food can tell so much about a people and culture, and this is one I look forward to getting to know.

Reading Response: Art Divide

Like many people, the first thing to jump out at me when researching the separation barrier was the art. I have always loved all forms of public art, especially murals. They are, to me, a literal image of the people in that place, a physical marker of a thought or feeling. If this is true anywhere, it is certainly true of the art on the separation barrier in the West Bank.

The murals on the wall show love. They show hatred. They show pain and sadness and reality, and beauty and victory and joy. More than anything though, they represent everyday life. The wall did not stop time. Daily tasks must be completed. Tests must be studied for, bills must be paid, and life must go on. The only difference is that the wall serves as a constant remind that just because this is real life, it does not mean it is normal life, acceptable life, or good life.

I do not believe that art can still be created in a world devoid of a possibility of a better future. While the wall exists today, dividing town, neighborhoods, and families, it would not be covered in art, hopeful, cacophonous, passionate art, were a permanent structure. When the separation barrier is gone, the art will remain-- in the minds of the people, their thoughts yet to be imprinted on a slab of concrete. That will be the day there is peace.

Reading Response: Teenagers, War, and the Power of Music

Teenagers. Creative, volatile, passionate, spontaneous, and the future of the world. Both the rappers we read about today, and many of the smaller names mentioned in the Tablet Mag article, began their work before they were even in high school, full to the brim with ideas and dreams about a bright and better future. The Heartbeat Project, too, uses music to bring young people together to find common ground. It's not hard, when you're 16. It's so much easier to see someone from the 'other side' as just another kid who gets grounded by unreasonable parents and is nervous about that biology test next week than 'the enemy'.

War. I am fortunate enough to have grown up a pretty stereotypical, middle-class, liberal family in a quiet neighborhood in Columbus. I do not know war. I will not pretend to understand. All I know is what I read in the media, which, as we have been discussing in class, is unavoidably operating with a second agenda. I realize that growing up in such a conflicted and contested place would create a deep rift even between people so malleable as teenagers. It is a different world.

The Power of Music. Everyone listens to music. All types, all languages, all occasions, all times of day. It seems to appeal to a deeper level of humanity we all share, one that provokes emotion in a way we cannot describe. Teenagers plus war could only lead to something so powerful as music: angry music, pained music, proud music. Leftist Israelis call Subliminal racist; the right wing named him a true patriot. His fellow rappers shunned him as the musician who killed the Israeli hip hop scene; he is looking to find European and American audiences. Israeli Jews hate Israeli Arabs for being Arab; Arabs hate Israeli Arabs for being Israeli. DAM is under fire for 'suporting terrorism'; they also collaborated with UN Women to raise worldwide awareness about 'honour killings'. Music tells two messages: what the singer sings, and what the listener hears. It is a difference beyond the words of the song.

Discussion Questions:

1. What role will rap play, if any, in the peace process?

2. Do you see the work of the two musicians we read about as positive or counterproductive?

Journal: Identity Symbols

I come from a family of 26 cousins spread out across 3 continents, and we hold two things to the highest importance: reunions, and food. "Dumpling Night" is a must at family get-togethers, and we crowd around the island counter in my eldest aunt's kitchen and make hundreds and hundreds little meat-and-vegetable filled dough pockets, called "jiao zi" (when boiled) or "guotie" (when panfried). I've been making these beauties, my favorite food, since I was five, and if there is anything that sums up family into one neat package, it's fried in oil and filled with pork and cabbage.

My One True Home will always be in a small, backwoods town in northern Vermont on the 50 acres of fields dotted with a classic red barn and white saltbox house my aunt owns. There's not much else to say here-- I grew up spending the whole summer there, and I love the wide open spaces and endless outdoors activity (no wifi, no cable, and cell phone reception only in one particular corner of one particular window in the living room). I mean, look at the picture. You can't beat that view-- and it isn't even the best one.

Three years ago, my family moved to Dunedin, New Zealand. Talk about "identity shaping experiences". It is an amazing country, and I often wish I had retained enough of my accent to claim ownership to it. If you ever have the opportunity to visit-- do!!

Jerusalem Now: Article Analysis

One does not have to look far to find media coverage of Jerusalem. A simple Google search of the name of the city returns 29,400,000 results. Narrow it down to "News", and there are still 66,600 articles. I chose three of these, from three sources on three topics, to analyze for this post.

The first, Man lightly wounded in Jerusalem stabbing, by Itamar Sharon, was from The Times of Israel, a non-partisan news source focused on events related to Jews both in Israel and in the diaspora. It was a short piece that detailed the assault of a young ultra-Orthodox man and mentioned two other similar stabbings by convicted East Jerusalem residents, perhaps insinuating, though not stating, the this attacker is also Palestinian. The piece was accompanied by a photograph captioned "An ultra-Orthodox man in the Old City of Jerusalem". Although the man is in the foreground, the focus of the picture is the wall behind him and the poster on it, both of which are covered in Arabic. The words "Palestinian" and "Arab" are not used once within the piece, but the opinion that the assailant is Palestinian is made obvious through the mention of other attacks by East Jerusalemites and the use of the photograph.


The second piece, from CNN, was entitled Israel approves permits for new settlements in East Jerusalem. The author, Kareem Khadder, makes a clear attempt to write about the "facts on the ground": he states that settlements in the West Bank have been built for many years but are illegal under international law. A slight (although appropriate, given the situation) bias is evident in that he did not include any statements in support of the settlements, while there were multiple quotes from those opposed to them. The photograph accompanying the piece, captioned "A Palestinian man's house was demolished by Israeli authorities February 5, 2014 in Jabel Mukaber", is also placed to engender sympathy for displaced Palestinians as a result of the settlement project. The rest of the piece provides opinions on the effects of the projects on the ongoing peace process as well as a very brief background to the status of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

I felt that these two pieces paralleled the Issam Nassar article in many ways. Nassar writes about how photograph often can convey either more or less of what exists in reality, and the pictures in both pieces certainly were meant to evoke a particular thought or emotion. The focus on the Arabic on the wall and the poster in the photo in the first piece are unusual when one considers that the only facts in the piece were about a Jew. The second photograph is heart wrenching-- a couple sits among the rubble that was their home until it was illegally destroyed by the government. Without these images, the articles would have had a sterile, unaffected appearance.

The final piece I read was an op-ed column in the New York Times by Thomas L. Friedman. Who's Garbage Is This Anyway? describes a unique tour the author took around the Jerusalem area. Unlike the previous two pieces, the focal point of this article was not the Israel-Palestine conflict, but rather the environmental issues that have developed because of disagreement. Friedman points out that "[w]e've learned in the last few years that the colonial boundaries of the Middle East do not correspond to the ethnic, sectarian and tribal boundaries... But neither do the ecosystem boundaries correspond with any borders or walls." In previous posts I have often noted my belief in the importance of Israelis and Palestinians finding common ground, be it in their love of the city or their desire to protect their families. Maintaining the environment is an excellent example in that it is entirely unrelated to religious differences and everyone, no matter what ID card they hold, will suffer the consequences if the two groups can't work together. Examples in the piece included sewage from East Jerusalem flowing untreated into the Dead Sea, floods in Nablus destroying the security barrier, carcinogens leaking into water supplies in Beersheba and Hebron, and the threat of running out of potable water in Gaza. These are serious problems, and Mother Nature won't wait for a peace agreement.

All three articles offered a glimpse into how the rest of the world sees Jerusalem: not through the eyes of Karen Armstrong and 430 pages of history, but through short headlines and brief articles mixed into all the news from everywhere else in the world. It is a different city, but it is the one present in the minds of most Americans, myself included up until the start of this class-- which leads me to my discussion questions:

1. How does the very limited view of most people in the world affect the way they think about the reality of the conflict? Is it the same problem when you take out the knowledge of the history behind it?

2. Do the opinions and viewpoints of common people in countries faraway even affect the steps towards a resolution, or does it make a difference? Are the thoughts of the people in the country and world powers the only ones that matter?

Initial Project Ideas

For the past several months, I have been a regular volunteer at a program called International Neighborhood Coffee Hour, more commonly called INCH. Every Wednesday for the past fifty years, American women have congregated to offer free English lessons to immigrant women from all over the world. The all-female environment makes it more comfortable for many newcomers, and I am personally involved in the childcare that is offered so mothers can come with their young children.

Due to the extreme weather conditions as of late, INCH has not met the past two weeks, so I have been unable to discuss this with the coordinator. However, I plan on talking to women who have recently immigrated from Israel-Palestine. As recent both women and recent immigrants, they will have a unique experience that I have the opportunity to experience first hand.

As I said, I haven't had time to legitimate this with anyone at INCH, hence "initial" ideas. I will be checking next week to make sure it is possible.

Discussion Response: Separate, Not Equal

This week we had our first opportunity to talk with two individuals living and breathing life in Israel-Palestine everyday. After talking with both Dr Tamari and Beti Herschmann, I was most struck by the effect of the separation barrier, particularly in around the Jerusalem area.

I knew very little about the wall, where it went, and what effect it had until these talks. As we walked through the Ir Amim map in class on Thursday, I began to see how very carefully the entirety of Jerusalem, the Israeli settlements, and the political and physical lines were laid out. Modern Jerusalem did not grow organically. It was particularly manufactured by Israelis, for Israelis, and often at the expense of the Palestinians.

The security barrier is meant to keep Israeli citizens safe, and the government, as a sovereign state, has both the right and the responsibility to protect its citizens. One look at the map, however, reveals that the wall often runs right through the middle of Palestinian neighborhoods-- in effect separating families and friends already suffering from lack of infrastructure and little government funding for necessities like a sewage system and proper schools.

What I found most interesting, though, were the Israeli settlement blocks. I've seen pictures, massive high rises popping out of the foothills of the city, and I've heard and read plenty about them, but I so wonder what it would be like to live there. Many have been around for years-- people have been born and grew up in these places built for the purpose of pushing Israel farther and farther into the West Bank and considered illegal by international law. What is the general consensus on the legitimacy in Har Homa? Does it affect daily life? The thousands of people who live in any of these contested areas are really just people, and that is what makes them and their home so very interesting.

Reading Response: Solidarity

Reading Karen Armstrong's "Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths" has been nothing if not a whirlwind. While the first several chapters were dense with unfamiliar details and difficult to read, I understood their importance upon reaching the end of the book, where everything came together. I don't think I would have appreciated the recent history (about which I did not previously know very much) without a more comprehensive view of the entire background of the city.

However, these last few chapters have certainly been the most interesting to me. It was heartbreaking to watch the deterioration from the relative peace and coexistence under Suleiman to the passionate hatred not uncommon among those of all three faiths. I was, though, surprised to read of the depth of the schisms within each religion. No wonder peace is so far off-- not only are the Israelis and the Palestinians unable to find a solution, the Israelis and Palestinians individually are not even united fronts.

Throughout the history of the strife-ridden region, I found the most hope in instances where different people found a common cause and and were able to united under one front. The reasons weren't always pleasant-- like when the Jews and Muslims were equally persecuted by the Crusaders, or, in these chapters, when competitive missionary Christians tried to outdo each other caring for the Jewish poor-- but, for a brief moment, two peoples were able to either see someone otherwise so different as the same or accomplish some good. No matter the circumstances, the feelings caused by these events are real, and to know such an emotion even for a moment can change one's outlook on life.

It is my hope that sometime soon, Israelis and Palestinians will find some common ground. I could imagine their shared devotion to their homeland that has caused the conflict in the first place would also be the first steps towards a resolution, but no matter the circumstances, should they feel united, I believe the emotion involved could be enough to catalyze massive change. People everywhere have stakes in the outcome of this ongoing struggle, but only the inhabitants of Jerusalem live the stakes on a daily basis. It might well be that the cause of this issue is also its solution.