Israel-Palestine Topic 7
RESPOND TO THE QUESTIONS LISTED BELOW IN A SHORT ESSAY RESPONSE & ALSO TAKE THE TIME TO RESPOND TO SOME OF YOUR CLASSMATES IDEAS/ESSAYS... ASK QUESTIONS, DEBATE ISSUES... HAVE FUN!
All of the children in the film live within twenty minutes of one another but they are growing up in separate worlds.
What is different about where the Israelis live and where the Palestinians live?
What is the same?
How do the differences produce different perspectives?
What role does fear play in our ability to feel compassion for others?
Over the course of the film, how do the children change?
At the end of the film, what are each child's concerns and why do they differ?
History Quotes
We can learn from history how past generations thought and acted, how they responded to the demands of their time and how they solved their problems. We can learn by analogy, not by example, for our circumstances will always be different than theirs were. The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.
-Gerda Lerner
History, we can confidently assert, is useful in the sense that art and music, poetry and flowers, religion and philosophy are useful. Without it -- as with these -- life would be poorer and meaner; without it we should be denied some of those intellectual and moral experiences which give meaning and richness to life. Surely it is no accident that the study of history has been the solace of many of the noblest minds of every generation.
-Henry Steele Commager
Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.
-Robert F. Kennedy
8 comments:
There is a big difference from where the Jews live and where the Arabs live. The Arabs have to live in refugee camps or in run down homes while the Jews live in relitivaly comfortable homes and don't have to live in refugee camps. As different is the two places may be, they have some similarities. For instance, it is a place that can call home, they can be happy, and can live in company of their own people. These differences produce different veiws. The Jews think that everything is fine and the Arabs think that the Jews stole their land.
Their fear for one another seems to make us pity one side and therefore feel compasionate towards them.
Over the course of the film their feelings toward eachother change. At first they hate eachothers guts but after they meet with eachother and hang out they can't see why they ever hated eachother before. At the end of the film Yarko and Daniel still want to be friends. Mahmoud thinks that the Jews are mean and thats that! Shlomo doesn't think about the friend ship much any more. Sanabala still wants to be friends but said it is hard to get across the checkpoints because she is an Arab. Faraj turned into a soldier and doesn't care about the friend ship any more. Moushie doesn't really talk to them anymore. The opinions differ because they have gone back to grow up without meeting any more of eachother.
Their is a HUGE difference between where the Israelis and the Palestinians live. One thing that is different is in what type of a house or apartment they have, or in the Palestinian's case, what their camp looks like. Another thing different is whether they have to be careful while being out of their houses. Some things that are same is that they both are yelled at by the opposite people. What else is the same is that they both live in the same neighborhoods as people of their same religion and or race. These differences produce different perspectives by making the others believe that they have it so much better or so much worse than the other. Fear plays a very big part in our ability to feel compassion. An example could be if someone dates a person of different race, they might be scared that their parents don't approve of it. Over the course of the film, the Palestinian people changed more I believe than the Israelis. An example is how Yarko and Daniel joined the army, even after they became friends with the people they are trying to kill. At the end of the film, the Palestinians concerns were that they wanted to get the Israelis out of their homeland, and the Israelis concerns were to get the Palestinians off of the land they think that they deserve.
where the israelis live there are soldiers, nicer communities, and people are free to go as they please. in the palestinian communities there is lots of grafity houses are very compact. they also need a permit to cross barricades. one thing they both have in common is that they have kids that have fun. differences between the kids produce different perspectives because if you are an israeli living in a community where you have soldiers protecting you. you would have a different view point than a palestinian living in a refugee camp. fear makes it hard to feel compassion for others because you are too scared to meet them and find out that they are a good person. over the course of the film the children become more tolerant of people of other religions or cultures. i cant remember every childs concerns but i do know that they either still had hatred toward the other person or they were willing to meet with children of different religions.
The Israelis life in the city and the Palestinians life out side of the city in places like ghettos. They will not let you go in or out with out a passport. It is the same because they both experiance killings and they both hate the other group. They both see things different so they can't solve their differences. Fear makes us hate people that did nothing to us. During the movie the kids start to see the other side and they change their views of every thing. They all still have differnent ideason what should happen.
Eric
I agree with everyone that there are big differences! The land and conditions the Palestinians live in is horrible! There are many more Arabs than Isrelis and they get the majority of the land. They both have family and homes where they live, whether the've lived there for years or not. Because of how the Palestinian live the Isrelis believe that all Palestinians are mean or will kill them. Major steriotypes, for both sides.
Sometimes fear out does compassion felt for others, sadly I would fear and keep myself safe before feeling for someone else and giving them a chance. At first many of the children feel hatered toward the other nationalities, but farther on and once they meet each other, the ease up on their thoughts.
The difference in the living conditions of the Jews and the Palestinians is great, but at the same time there is hardly a difference at all. The two groups live in different religions and with different customs and different views, but the two groups live with the same types of activities and have fun doing the same things. If you are afraid of another group, you cannot as easily feel compasion for that group. Over the course of the film the children come to like eachother and feel less hate. After the film is over they grow up without any further interaction and most of them went back to their original views on the subject.
The Israelis typically live in better conditions and Palestinians either live in refugee camps or in more poor areas of the cities.The only similarity is really that the live surrounded by people of the same religon. The differences cause stereotypes. The Jews think the Arabs are where they should be, in poor conditions. The Arabs think the Jews are taking over and taking what is rightly theirs.If we are afraid of someone we can't really have compassion for that person because we are afraid they will hurt us. Most of the kids' in the movie views get stronger and more almost nationalistic towards their group. Only Faraj manged to get away. At the end, some are afraid the conflict will never end and others like Daniel and Yarko are fighting for their side believing that fighting will stop it. They differ because some are still willing to met the other to stop the fighting and others still feel hate and want to continue fighting.
The difference between the where the Jews live to where the Arabs live is the Jews live in fairly comfortable homes and have most of their daily needs met. The Arabs mainly live in cramped refugee camps where they have to work hard to get their daily needs met. The thing that is the same with both groups is that they live in constant fear that the other group will come and kill them or a dear friend or family member. They both fear the other group and slowly if they don't understand how the other person is feeling the fear slowly turns to hate. In the film the children change by that hate they have sort of goes away for the ones who connect with eachother because they then under stand how the other one is feeling and how hard it is for both sides, not just one. For the ones who do not meet eachother(Shlomo and Moishe) their feelings toward the opposing group do not change except for Mahmoud. Mahmoud talked of how he never wanted to be friends with a Jew then the interviewer explained that he was a Jew and Mahmoud realized that the Jews can be quite nice. In the end Shlomo's feelings have not change,h e is polite to Arabs, but not friends. Faraj wants to carry out being friends with the twins, and so does Sanabel. Moishe still absolutley dislikes Arabs. Yarko and Daniel understand Arabs more but still do not try hard to keep their friendship with Sanabel and Faraj going.
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