Journal One

The Occupation 101 film that we watched in class today was a very educational experience in regards to the Palestine-Israel conflict. Sadly, I had very little knowledge of the situation in the region beforehand, despite daily news reports and study of the region in secondary school. As far as I knew, the Arab-Palestinians were using unprovoked violence to steal land from what was rightfully Israel. As with overcoming any bias or preconceived notions, I now see how hopelessly naïve my thoughts were about a region that has dealt with so much turmoil. The plight of the Palestinian people is seemingly hopeless—faced with an American community that shows little awareness, and lobby groups exerting influence for the rights of their oppressors, it saddens me, but does not surprise me that the Palestinian people have reverted to violence in some cases. I cannot understand what it would be like to live under occupation from a foreign nation, in land that is my own. Without the ability to be a viable nation-state, without the possibility of economic success, without the support of its neighbors, Palestine will never thrive until they have their own lands free from occupation. A man in the video said that before the conflict the Israelis and Palestinians lived as brothers in the land…brothers…brothers. I see no reason why they cannot live this way once again in the future. This is very contradictory to the false notion that there has always been fighting in the Middle East. Where this notion came from, I do not know, but I do know that until international bodies like the U.N. or others force Israel to heed international law, Palestinians will get nowhere. Groups like AIPAC distort the public image of Palestine as being the antagonists in a story that in reality has only two protagonists. Palestinians are seen as terrorists, when they have been driven there out of sheer helplessness. This in no way condones terrorist groups, but it does put the situation into perspective. Because I have only seen a movie, I cannot fully grasp the condition that Palestinians are living in and the problems they face, but through class this January, I hope to come to a better realization of their quandary and what I can do in my own small way to help them.