Thurday January 22nd.
Today in class we watched a video (which unfortunately I forgot to write down the title of) that profiled the Israel/Palestine conflict. Obviously much of the world's attention has been focused on the region for quite some time when the land that Israel now occupies was given to them by a coalition of nations. They felt that it was proper retribution for the horrors survived by many of the Jewish people of Europe and around the world who had been victims of antisemitism, acts against humanity, and an overall practice of diaspora that has spanned for centuries. The video was very pro-Palestine in that it focused on the bias nature of the media in America in its coverage of the more recent conflicts. Some of the most interesting information that was shown in the documentary to me was how there are media checkpoints and certain words to "puff" up the pieces and depict the conflict in a certain way. One example of this is the frequent news reports that depict Israel as a victim. There was always stories that are released that describe the acts of Palestine as heinous, suicidal acts that are constantly trying to inflict more and more suffering onto the people of Israel. There is now arguing that the American media is slanted towards the support of Israel. While we are on the subject of American media bias, did you know that Israel receives over 6 BILLION in aid per-year from the American government...
Personally, even more so as someone who was raised Jewish, I find myself in support of land being given back to Palestine and some sort of arrangement being reached that allows for BOTH an independent Israel and an independent Palestine. It may be just a pipe dream as many mediators from presidents to media celebrities have tried to bridge the political and ideological gaps between the two groups with not so much success. With Iran undergoing internal modernization both politically and militarily and Hamas having control of missiles, there is always going to be a threat for Israel and with America standing behind them like a big brother, this hurtful game of words, is soon enough going to snowball and become a major military conflict if the rest of the Islamic world decides to fight for their sacred land and protect their "brothers". It may have only been the first class, but I envision this scene as a constant theme in my Modern Middle East and North Africa class and look forward to learning more not only about the history, but on what steps have been made to remedy this gap in political ideology in the past and more importantly with the recent outburst of violence, what will be done in the future.
-Ben
