Alia Salam

Editor's Notes

• #3: We can probably have an entire course over the year talking about the Israeli-Palestinian Issue. But since time is not on our side, I will only focus on main points such as the roots of the conflict, Zionism, history overview, significant events, roles of media and US involvement.
• #5: Since I am an Arab American, I feel responsible to spread the awareness of this controversial issue that is often misunderstood and misinterpreted.
• #6: Many people think that religion is the cause of the conflict since Palestine is regarded as a holy place by the three Abrahamic religions. You also have to know that there was a small Jewish population existing in Palestine before the start of the conflict, so the conflict did not start at all because of religion. But the difference of religions have eventually contributed to the problem creating religious discrimination.
• #7: A point that I want to clear up is anti-semitism. First you have to understand the meaning of semitism. Semitism is a race that is different than the Aryan or Indo-european race. And as you see here, both Arabs and Jews are the descendants of Prophet Abraham. Which means that Jews, as well as Arabs, are semetic. So Muslims cannot be anti-semetic. Remember that an Arab is a native speaker of an Arab country, and Muslim is the person who believes in the Islamic faith. The language of the Islamic book, the Qur’an, is Arabic. So the word anti-semitism implies that Jews are opposed on their racial characteristics, not religion.
• #8: So, Palestine is regarded as a holy place by the three monotheistic religions (AKA Abrahamic religions) Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For Jews: It’s the land where Jacob - who is considered the grand father of the tribes of Israel- lived with his children. It is also the place where Solomon temple was once built before being destroyed by the Babylonians.  Here’s a picture of Architects view of the temple.
• #9: For Christians, it’s the land where Jesus (pbuh) was born, lived and preached and (as they believe) crucified and will be resurrected. In Jerusalem, there exist the three churches that denote his life.Here in this picture, you see one of the most holiest churches, located in Jerusalem at the traditional site of Golgotha - the place of Jesus burial.
• #10: Muslims believe Islam is the continuation of Judaism and Christianity and its message was the message of all prophets completed by the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). They believe that all prophets who passed by or lived there had struggled to spread the message to worship the one and only God. Jerusalem was their first direction of prayers, and the place where their third shrine (Al-Aqsa Mosque) stands in which a prayer is worth 500 prayers.Also, it’s believed to be the site from which prophet Muhammad (pbuh) ascended to heaven in a holy night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem.
• #11: In the mid nineteenth century Charles Darwin’s natural selection idea was immediately picked up and twisted by “Social Darwinists” to support the notion that the Aryans were inherently superior to the Semitic people and to justify anti-Semitic campaigns. It is important to remember that such anti-Jewish discrimination that took the forms of pogroms was carried out not by Palestinian Muslims, but by European Christians. So, European Jews were advocating for a Jewish homeland. And the aims of zionism are to attain a Jewish majority in Palestine and to acquire statehood. So the conflict originated here, where the Zionist interests compelled displacing Palestinians from their lands and jobs and also conflicted with their dream of Establishing an independent state.
• #12: British Secretary of State Balfour pledges British support for "a Jewish national home in Palestine.”1920: Palestine Mandate assigned to Britain.1922:White Paper permitsJewish immigration.Adherents of Zionism believed that the Jewish people had an inherent right to Palestine referring to the divine promise of the land to the tribes of Israel.
• #13: According to Orthodox Jews the founding principles of zionism run counter to Judaism. Judaism does not condone violence. Judaism demands that Jews be good citizens of the countries in which they reside. Zionists have not only committed crimes against Palestinians, but also against Orthodox Jews.
• #14: In the first quote, David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel said: “If I was an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel… This is natural, we have taken their country”. In the second quote, AhronCizling, an Israeli cabinet minister said after the savagery of the DeirYassin massacre of 240 villagers: “Now Jews behaved like NAZIS and my entire being has been SHAKEN. Obviously we have to CONCEAL these actions from the public”. But I disagree with him in the using of the terms “Jews” because as I said earlier that Judaism is different than Zionism, so he should have said zionists instead.
• #15: Now we will jump ahead to the UN Partition Plan when Britain leaves Palestinian’s mandate. So many negotiations have been made about the UNPP. The Arabs resisted the plan in so many ways and resulted in several clashes with the Israeli community. British report to UN estimates 1,974 people killed or injured in Palestine in 1947. But it was enforced anyhow.
• #16: The Arab inhabitants of the region (whose population in Palestine was double that of the Jews) were horrified at what they viewed as Western Immigrants, rather than native sons and daughters returning to their homeland. It is like the Native Indians coming back to inhabit America.
• #17: In the maps here, you see that in 1946 before the PP was enforced, most of the land was Arab land, but it then diminished. As you can see in 2000, most of the land is for Israel.
• #18: The Arabs believed that their cause was just and clear. And they were humiliated because of the loss of Palestinian territory. Most of the Palestinians were forced to move to neighboring countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt.
• #19: The neighboring Arab nations felt a strong responsibility to ensure that their interests in the region were protected, that their land was secured, and that the promises of an independent Arab nation made by the British at the time of the occupation were honored. So it was that both sides came to battle convinced of the justness of their cause, and willing to fight to death in order to protect their homeland. Five Arab nations: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt streamed into Palestine from four flashpoints. The success of the Arab armies in the earliest days of the war faded as each army sought its own aims. 6000 Israelis and 7000 Arabs were killed.
• #20: Al-Nakba is the Arabic word for catastrophe. The Palestinians refer to the events after Israel’s state establishment as Al-Nakaba in which two-thirds of the Palestinians were driven out of their country. They have witnessed massacres such as Al-Sheikh village, DeirYassin, Bahr El-Baqar, Al-Fakahany and much more.
• #21: Barak, a former Israeli Prime Minister, took away Jerusalem and established settlements in the West Bank. He also built a segregation wall reasoning that Palestine can be a viable state; the wall has taken 58% of the West Bank leaving Palestinians in camps and ghettos. The wall also restricted the freedom of the Palestinians; they could not transport from the West Bank to Gaza… It separated them from their land, schools, places of work, essential resources, health services, their families and loved ones.
• #22: The most significant and destructive event that happened over the past year is known as the War on Gaza. People have long argued how it started, but months later it was confessed that Israel broke the ceasefire that was agreed with Hamas. Israel did not lift its illegal blockade on Gaza and launched a night raid on Gaza during the 4th November 2008 US elections killing 6 Hamas militants. Hamas responded by firing home made rockets.The first airstrike had killed more than 375 Palestinians, most of them Hamas militants. When I was reading all these articles about the start of the war on Gaza, a statement made by the Professor Finkelstein, a Jewish American political scientist and author, specializing in Jewish-related issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict caught my attention. He commented that if we are going to condemn Hamas for these rocket attacks, we must suggest how else they should resist the pressure placed on them by persistent Israeli attacks, subjugation and persistent blockades that drain the small area of land. If we cannot provide an alternative, we cannot criticize.
• #23: An Israeli government report has said that the Israeli military campaign in Gaza was "necessary and proportionate".The war and its conduct have been widely criticized, with Israel and Hamas accused of war crimes. Israel alsoclaimed that their goal was to stop Hamas from firing rockets and ”to improve the security situation in southern Israel, and to facilitate peaceful living for the Israeli civilians living there." Also, Israeli soldiers confessed that they were told to shoot unarmed civilians.And logically, we all know that this not a right way to reach peace; it’s in fact the opposite. The conflict lasted for 22 days, ending on 18 January.
• #24: 3:35
• #25: Discussing the siege on Gaza in detail, Finkelstein emphasised the disproportionate nature of the Israeli attacks. The ratios of death and destruction are striking: 100 Palestinians were killed to 1 Israeli; 600 Palestinian civilians were killed to 1 Israeli. On this basis, the siege cannot be called a war as a minimum condition of war is that there are at least two sides firing at each other. Israeli soldiers themselves have stated that Israel used ‘insane amounts of firepower'.The total of Palestinians killed from the year 2000 till today is over 6,348 including over 1,441 Palestinian children killed by Israelis. And the number of Israelis killed by Palestinians is 1,072 and over 100 children.
• #26: Settlements are a huge conflict because the Palestinians’ freedom is extremely restricted to ensure the safety of the Israeli settlers. Not only their freedom is taken away, but also they are being harassed.
• #27: Restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement remained widespread during the reporting period.Checkpoints - a number of which are now run by private security companies contracted by the Israeli Ministryof Defense - and various kinds of road blocks, prevented Palestinians from moving freely within the WestBank. Such physical obstacles greatly hindered Palestinians’ access to their families, places of employmentand worship, agricultural lands, markets and educational and health care institutions.There are7,383 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel without trial while there is only one Israeli currently held in Palestinian prison. Most of these prisoners killed Israelis. Some are held in prisons from 20 years, but why can’t we detain the Israelis who are killing Palestinians children and civilians? Well, in response to this question, Ariel Sharon, an Israeli prime minister said in 2001“No one has the right to put the Jewish people and the state of Israel on trial”.
• #28: Today there are more than 3.7 million Palestinian refugees living in refugee camps throughout the Middle East and many more exiles worldwide. Their right of return is clearly and unambiguously guaranteed by international law. The government of Israel, however, opposes Palestinian immigration, in order to maintain the Jewish character of the state.
• #29: This is a story from the daily lives of the Palestinians. A story that have become very usual to a Palestinian to live and to an Arab to hear. In this story, a Palestinian guy is telling the story of when he and his friend were beat up by Israeli soldiers for more than half an hour.
• #30: Not only men are harassed by Israeli soldiers, but also children. And that’s what testimonies and confessions have showed. In one of these stories, some children were playing soccer in their refugee camp when Israeli soldiers shot at them, and one of the kids head burst into parts, and other children were badly wounded.
• #31: For the land of Palestine was not simply an empty and arid desert, “a land without people awaiting people without a land,” as some suggested. Instead, it was a settled land dotted with vast farms and vibrant towns, a land with citizens who had cultivated its Earth for centuries. *Families who had lived in a region for many generations were suddenly confronted with the prospect of being forced from their homes to make a way for new groups of settlers who called their “homeland”, because their ancestors had lived there in Biblical times.
• #32: Here,Libi Oz talks about her daily struggle as any other Israeli living in Israel. Mainly, Israeli citizens are afraid to walk down the streets because of suicide bombers. These suicide bombers feel that this is the only way to take revenge and defend their country since they have lost almost everything already even though this is illegal in Islam.
• #33: So what is the Jewish dream? The Jewish dream is to establish a Jewish stage where all those sufferings and prejudice and discrimination would be free to live, to practice their faith openly, and to govern themselves.
• #34: Out of the American citizens’ taxes, $3 billion goes to Israel annually. 1.8 billion is in the form of military-financing loans to help supply Israel’s armed forces, and 1.2 billion is in the form of direct economic aid. A lot of people are opposing the US financial aid to Israel because all that money comes from the Americans taxes and goes to destruction and killing of civilians. However, a minority thinks that the aid should be increased or at least guaranty its continuity.
• #35: Media has been involved widely in this issue through spreading propaganda and stereotypes and false information in some cases. As you have seen in the CNN video earlier, further investigation is always needed before making judgments… Now why do you think that when you see Arabs being killed you don’t feel pity? This is because TV have displayed them as animals, terrorists, and criminals whether in movies or news. What you see in the pictures here is what the Western media wants you to see and think of.
• #36: American news coverage is influenced by institutional filters. The top filter is the owners of US Media firms, the second is political elites, politicians and policy makers that can access main stream media. The third filter is Israel’s own public relation efforts such as the AIPAC. And the last filter is watchdog groups that monitor and pressure media journalists such as Camera. Therefore organizations that are opposing Israel’s policy such as Jews against the occupation and Americans for peace now can rarely make it through these filters. For example, an American Journalist, Grace Halsell, who traveled to Jerusalem in the 70’s tried to expose the suffering of the Palestinians through a book she wrote, but she was told: “It shouldn’t be published. It’s anti-Israel.”Now this video will show you the media filters.
• #38: First, I wanted to see how to approach my audience. So I asked them about what they know and how much they know through interviewing some and surveying some. All the people I included in my surveys are non-Muslim. I interviewed a number of Jewish and Christian people ranging from 16 to 40 years old. Based on the results of these surveys and interviews, I knew that most of my targeted audience has a good background, the majority think that both Israel and Hamas are committing war crimes, and the majority also believes that Israel does not have the right to occupy the Palestinian territories.
• #39: Now the second stage of my application was through diversity day. I felt that knowing about the other culture would help people to slowly break the ties, overcome the differences, or at least appreciate the other culture. And I did that through setting up a middle-eastern table in the gym, having an Arabic writing class, and an Arabic music session.
• #40: The final stage of my application was to have the Jewish and Muslim students at Upper Merion to come together and have a peaceful discussion at lunch. We were all very pleased of how the Peace Talk went. They were all willing to share and hear, and they handles the questions very respectfully.
• #43: My most favorite text sources were The Palestinians and the Disputed territories, The Arab-Israel Dispute, and Israel and the Arab World. The first one was a collection of different articles written by Muslim, Jewish, or Christian writers. So I could see different perspectives and compare. The second one was a huge library. It had all the chronology starting from biblical times, and it even has documents… The third one had all the major events with details and pictures. It was really helpful for me to understand the conflict from the beginning.
• #45: My favorite websites were BBC, CNN, and Palestine Remembered because they had so many articles than I needed for my research.
• #47: Through my research and application I learned that Muslims and Jews can be friends with each other despite the political dispute at least outside the disputed territories. Even though the Arab government and the Israeli government are not getting along, Muslims and Jews can definitely get along.