Recently having viewed an HBO Documentary, Death in Gaza, a new perspective has been revealed to me, about the true meaning of being a martyr. Prior to viewing this meaningful, yet informative documentary, I was unaware of the constant hardship and anguish those living in certain parts of the world may undergo. Life is not only a constant struggle, but a war too, between the Palestinians and Arabs, over land, religion, and many other aspects. Providing the viewer with a somewhat biased perspective of Palestinian life in Gaza, the HBO Documentary was filmed by a person who is known today for his documentary Death in Gaza, which informed others greatly about the impact of terrorism on children. Little do people know that children are negatively impacted by this war, and what seems to be an everlasting conflict. Exposing the human tragedy of war, Death in Gaza not only exposed the human tragedy of war, but also provided the viewer with the painful truth about life in Gaza.
After viewing this documentary, the first feeling the viewer feels is of great sympathy, for those who are subject to this difficult life every day. Comparing Palestinian children’s lives to ours here in America, an uncountable number of differences are present. The majority of children in America would most likely remark that their lives are nowhere near as difficult as those of Palestinian children. Upon waking up from bed, most American children only think about what they are going to eat for their first meal, or which clothes they will wear. On the other hand, Palestinian children may think first about praying to god for their family members lost in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. In both parts of the world, death occurs for completely different reasons. F...
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...assing; the lives of Israeli children were not able to be portrayed. Some bias may be present because of the fact that only one side of the story was depicted. Palestinian children are shown in this HBO documentary as having hard lives, especially because they are outnumbered. In the event that the lives of Israeli children were able to be shown, many similarities would have surely been present. Despite the Palestinians being outnumbered, they have also caused Israelis to be martyrs.
Any viewer of this documentary will surely agree that there is a strong impact. Although some parts of it were difficult to watch, these parts clearly exposed the raw and painful truth about life in the Gaza Strip. Viewers of this documentary are sure to be enlightened about the human tragedy of war. Recommending this documentary is a must, because of its strong influence on viewers.
In 2005, the Palestinian director and writer, Hany Abu-Assad, released his award winning motion picture, “Paradise Now.” The film follows two Palestinian friends, over a period of two days, who are chosen by an extremist terrorist group to carry out a suicide mission in Tel-Aviv during the 2004 Intifada. The mission: to detonate a bomb strapped to their stomachs in the city. Because the film industry seldom portrays terrorists as people capable of having any sort of humanity, you would think the director of “Paradise Now” would also depict the two main characters as heartless fiends. Instead he makes an attempt to humanize the protagonists, Khaled and Said, by providing us with a glimpse into their psyches from the time they discover they’ve been recruited for a suicide bombing operation to the very last moments before Said executes the mission. The film explores how resistance, to the Israeli occupation, has taken on an identity characterized by violence, bloodshed, and revenge in Palestinian territories. Khaled and Said buy into the widely taught belief that acts of brutality against the Israeli people is the only tactic left that Palestinians have to combat the occupation. In an effort to expose the falsity of this belief, Hany Abu-Assad introduces a westernized character named Suha who plays the voice of reason and opposition. As a pacifist, she suggests a more peaceful alternative to using violence as a means to an end. Through the film “Paradise Now,” Abu-Assad not only puts a face on suicide bombers but also shows how the struggle for justice and equality must be nonviolent in order to make any significant headway in ending the cycle of oppression between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Mark M. Anderson. "The Child Victim as Witness to the Holocaust: An American Story?" Jewish Social Studies 14.1 (2007): 1-22. Project MUSE. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. .
The siege at School No. 1 in Beslan showed how the innocence of children can be changed in an instant, more especially when children endure situations of extreme violence. The author concludes that children’s innocence and resilience diminishes somewhat after experiencing tragic and violent events. The surviving Beslan children speak of never returning to normal lives after the siege. The children returned to school, albeit at another school building, but they now approach life in a more cautious and fearful manner. Some feel they now have to protect themselves and their families and of how they have become more mature as a result. Interesting enough, adults seem to be far more cautious than children. Some parents of the Beslan children to this day still accompany their children to school and sit in the classrooms all day with them.
Regine Donner, a famous Holocaust survivor, once said, “I had to keep my Jewishness hidden, secret, and never to be revealed on penalty of death. I missed out on my childhood and the best of my adolescent years. I was robbed of my name, my religion, and my Zionist idealism” (“Hidden Children”). Jewish children went through a lot throughout the Holocaust- physically, mentally, and emotionally. Life was frightening and difficult for children who were in hiding during the rule of Adolf Hitler.
This marked the beginning of the Palestine armed conflict, one of its kinds to be witnessed in centuries since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and World War 1. Characterized by a chronology of endless confrontations, this conflict has since affected not only the Middle East relations, but also the gl...
The Holocaust, the tyrannically planned and executed mass murder of nearly six million innocent Jews by the pandemonic forces of Hitler’s Nazi regime remains till date a crime unprecedented in history. The magnitude of the Holocaust trauma is so immense that it keeps percolating to generations of survivors. The second generation children of survivors, the immediate descendants of survivors of the Holocaust have also been vicariously traumatized because of their Holocaust legacy.
In an article published by the Palestine-Israel Journal, it spoke about a survey done of Palestinian living conditions in parts of their homeland, including West Bank and Gaza Strip. The findings of the survey provided insight of the Palestinians constant war against unbelievers. The article stated, “In examining social change in Palestinian society, it was found that a high level of social integration exists together with a low level of social advancement. And the economic disadvantages of prolonged occupation with restrictions on movement and unexpected curfews and closures have created an environment of uncertainty and an inability to plan ahead of time for individual, family and group
Imagine being forced out of your own home by an intruder, and this intruder takes away everything you once called your own. Said’s assignment is a real-live example of this situation, he uses images of specific examples of the happenings in Palestine. Palestinian life went from being highly posted to becoming a disrespected minority where it once stood tall. The main idea of Said’s assignment is to see how one can portray their experiences as going from the majority to becoming the “other”.
Hedges’s first entry has him in Beit Agron receiving his press pass and preparing for the dangerous trip ahead. While leaving he notes a man of Israeli Arabic descent that voices his opinion on the Palestinians and how they “are animals,” and that “…Israel is a land of love…Palestinians do not love…We should put fire to them.”
Joe Sacco’s graphic novel, Palestine, deals with the repercussions of the first intifada in Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land. The story follows the author through the many refugee camps and towns around Palestine as he tries to gather information, stories, and pictures to construct his graphic novel. While the book is enjoyable at a face level, there are many underlying themes conveyed throughout its illustrated pages and written text.
The ongoing and explosive Israeli-Palestinian conflict has its roots in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when two major nationalist movements among the Jews and Arabs were born. Both of these groups’ movements were geared toward attaining sovereignty for their people in the Middle East, where they each had historical and religious ties to the land that lies between the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Toward the end of the 19th century, Southern Syria (Palestine) was divided into two regions, inhabited primarily by Arab Muslims, and ruled by the Turkish Ottoman Empire (BBC News). At this time, most of the Jews worldwide lived predominantly in eastern and central Europe. When the Zionist political movement was established in 1887 and began to fund land purchases in the Ottoman Empire controlled region of Palestine, tensions between the two groups arose. Since then, Israel and Palestine have been vying for control of this land that they both covet, and this conflict remains as one of the world’s major sources of instability today, involving many different players. One of these players who continues to halt the peace process, is a militant fundamentalist Islamic organization called Hamas. Hamas has intensified extreme opposition and bloodshed in the region, with the aim of destroying the state of Israel. However, few people know that starting in the mid 1970s, Israel secretly supported an organization that would later emerge as Hamas, even though both groups had competing future visions for the nation. Why did it choose to do this when it had so much at stake? This paper will address the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict leading up to the beginning of Israeli support of Hama...
As I zoomed down the interstate, I caught a glimpse of a sign that read “New Palestine Next Exit.” Something didn’t feel right but I just shrugged it off and kept driving. It was late and my friends and I were all anxious to get to the bowling alley so we could continue our fun-filled Friday night. Ten miles later, a light on my dashboard started blinking so I pulled into the nearest gas station to fill up my tank. Then it hit me: I was on the complete opposite end of town. Remember that famous line in The Wizard of Oz, “I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”? Well, that was me, except Kansas was my hometown on the west side of Indianapolis and Oz was who-knows-where in the urban eastside. I was lost.
Capturing children and turning them into child soldiers is an increasing epidemic in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah, author of the memoir A Long Way Gone, speaks of his time as a child soldier. Beah was born in Sierra Leone and at only thirteen years old he was captured by the national army and turned into a “vicious soldier.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) During the time of Beah’s childhood, a civil war had erupted between a rebel group known as the Revolutionary United Front and the corrupt Sierra Leone government. It was during this time when the recruitment of child soldiers began in the war. Ishmael Beah recalls that when he was only twelve years old his parents and two brothers were killed by the rebel group and he fled his village. While he and his friends were on a journey for a period of months, Beah was captured by the Sierra Leonean Army. The army brainwashed him, as well as other children, with “various drugs that included amphetamines, marijuana, and brown brown.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) The child soldiers were taught to fight viciously and the effects of the drugs forced them to carry out kill orders. Beah was released from the army after three years of fighting and dozens of murders. Ishmael Beah’s memoir of his time as a child soldier expresses the deep struggle between his survival and any gleam of hope for the future.
“Syrian children: The Forgotten Victims.” Your Middle East.Your Middle East. 10 Feb 2014. Web. 11 Feb 2014.
The graphic novel Palestine written by Joe Sacco is a trustworthy description of different stories in the heart of the century-long conflict between Arabs and Israeli. Sacco produced the graphic novel after spending two months with the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories in late 1991 and early 1992. Things certainly have changed since thenThe story is all about what happened in that part of the Middle East at the beginning of the 1990s. In this respect, a critical viewpoint should be applied in order to discuss the main topics in detail. Thus, Palestine is actually a guide for a Westerner willing to know what occurs in the Middle East each time the conflict between Israeli and Palestinians takes place.Excellent contemporary graphic novel. The characters convincingly portrayed. Sacco has a journalist eye and a storyteller’s heart.