Preview

War, Peace and Lamentation

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2984 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
War, Peace and Lamentation
Peace, War and Lamentation
Imagine a child living in a closed society that separates them from the rest of their community and country. Does that child feel isolated or alienated from their homeland? Picture a 10 minute commute to work turning into a two hour commute overnight. Imagine a society that requires check-points and permanent resident permits in order to move freely from one destination to the other? Unfortunately, this is a way of life for some Palestinians families living in the West Bank and Gaza areas of Israel. The surrounding areas of the West Bank did not always consist of separation and policies, but rather freedom of movement. However, this changed when Israel policy makers made the decision to build the wall to separate Palestine from Israel territories. According to Editor John Woodward, on July 2003, Israel policy makers announced that they finished the first phase of the wall in the West Bank area (46). The separation wall as a 7.6 concrete crowned with watch towers between one distance and another (144). He goes on further to describe the wall as a barrier that includes barbed wires in front of a hole in the ground, which are 2-and 4-meters deep. The barrier also consists of, cameras, radar observation, towers, and touch sensitive pads. Too add to that, the electrified fence stretches across 60-100 meters long with one military road (144). The wall separating Israelis from Palestinians is one of many efforts between the two parties to come to a mutual peace agreement.
One of the repeated efforts of Israel authorities to make peace with Palestinians policy makers includes several different offers of a two-state solution. The two-state solution was a plan to make two independent states for Jewish and Palestine communities. It was first offered to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1937, but they rejected the offer. One researcher argues that the repeated refusal of the two- state resolution was an implication



Cited: Bucaille, Laetitia. Growing up Palestine. Trans. Anthony Roberts. New Jersey: 2004.Print Dershowitz, Alan B. The Case for Israel. New Jersey: Basic, 2003. Print Israel. Films Media Group, 2003. Films On Demand. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=7671&xtid=33614>. Lendman, Stephen. “Breaking the Silence-Israeli Soldiers Speak” Stephen Lendman Blog. 24 April 2008. Web. 30 March 2011 Reporters Without Barriers, ed. Israel/Palestine: The Black Book. London: 3003. Print Woodward, John. Israel Opposing Viewpoints. City: 2005. Print

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    It was the closest to a peace agreement the Israelis and Palestinians ever reached. There was significant opposition to the Peace Process, but support was higher: 80% of Palestinians said that they supported a two-state solution. (Ravnitz) However, after he was assassinated, his successors were unable to reach a deal, possibly because Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, trusted Rabin more (Bowen), leading to a slowdown in peace talks, so by now, support for peace talks and a two-state solution are down dramatically. About half of Palestinians support a two-state solution, down from 80%. Only about 35% of Israeli Arabs (distinct from Palestinians) think that a two-state solution will works (Ravnitz).…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Week 3and4

    • 268 Words
    • 1 Page

    Israelis and Palestinians conflict will continue indefinitely until they forgive each other in order to move forward in peace. The primary approach to solving the conflict today is a "two-state solution" that would establish Palestine as an independent state in Gaza and most of the West Bank, leaving the rest of the land to Israel. Though the two-state plan is clear in theory, the two sides are still deeply divided over how to make it work in practice. The alternative to a two-state solution is a "one-state solution," wherein all of the land becomes either one big Israel or one big Palestine. Most observers think this would cause more problems than it would solve, but this outcome is becoming more likely over time for political and demographic reasons.…

    • 268 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine living in a warzone, where every day could be your last day, and your country is in the war with itself. Where words of peace were only spoken, not carried out. Israel was one of those countries; it was 1993 when a break to the seemingly endless war began. The Oslo Accords, a result of both Israel and Palestine desire to move beyond the reputation of the intifadah, gave Palestine independence from Israel and brought the country into a financial golden age (“Israel”).…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    For this WebQuest, you will develop a historical understanding of the complex issues behind the decisions…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    On the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian land has been increasingly taken over by Israel for years. An extremist Jewish group called the Zionists, emerged in the late 1800s , seeking to find a homeland for the Jews, and searching in both Africa and the Americas before finally settling on Palestine. This did not appear as a problem or threat at first but as many more Zionists immigrated to Palestine with the intention of taking over the land to create a Jewish state, fighting broke out with the Palestinians, increasingly surging with Hitler’s rise to power during World War I. To this day, Palestinians have very minimal control of what mere land they have left, especially with Israel’s military forces using extremely oppressive methods.…

    • 1378 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It was a hot, summer night; throngs of angry protestors swarmed around the gates of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, chanting slogans denouncing the government, which changed to chants of “Medinat Mistarah” – or, “Police State” in English -- any time the police attempted to quash the protest and expel the masses from the grounds. The air was charged with utter disbelief; protestors felt the sting of their government’s shocking betrayal. The cause? Announcement of the Oslo Accords, or “The Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements” (DOP), as it is formally known. This agreement, between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)1 -- headed by arch-enemy Yasser Arafat, a man long considered a terrorist and responsible for unspeakable horrors against Israeli civilians -- represented official recognition by Israel of the PLO, now known as the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Fatah party. Jerusalemites sang the famous “Yerushaliyim Shel Zahav” (Jerusalem of Gold – the victory song of Jerusalem’s reunification, written by Naomi Shemer and made famous by singer Ofra Haza2) while lamenting the eventuality of its lyric’s relevance fading into history. Yet the unbelievable occurred: the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, instantly derailing the momentum towards peace. Subsequent prime ministers have attempted to finish Rabin’s work, and all have failed. With each passing day, the dream of peace slips further away; the death of Rabin constituted the death of Oslo.…

    • 2047 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Iron Cage

    • 2047 Words
    • 9 Pages

    In chapter one of The Iron Cage, Rashid Khalidi sets the stage for the premise of his book, by examining the conflicting evidence of the Palestinians’ plight. In order to do so, the narrative begins in 1948, following the eviction of more than half of the Arab Palestinian population as a result of the Arab – Israel conflict of that year. Khalidi goes on to enumerate a few of the respective differing Arab and Israel accounts of how it was that a people that once constituted the majority of the population of a land, became the minority. Revisionist Israeli historians have attempted to debunk traditional accounts that absolve Israel of any wrongdoing, such as the notion that Palestinians attacked the yishuv first, by looking at the newly opened Israeli, American, and British archives. Although Khalidi is appreciative of the latest attempts of objectivity, the author goes on to claim that Israeli revisionists continue to provide shortsighted narratives, because of an inability to incorporate Arab sources to the reinterpretations. Furthermore, Khalidi castigates Arab interpretations of the conflict as well, by noting the over emphasis they put on external causes, such as the superiority of the Israeli armed forces, or the alliance between Israel and Transjordan. Although Khalidi noticeably acknowledges many of the claims from both sides, his conclusion is nevertheless, that not enough attention has been paid to the internal reasons why Palestine as a nation has failed.…

    • 2047 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Sorrow of War

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War is a novel that is a personal view of the Vietnam War from the perspective of a Vietnamese soldier. Like the American novel “The things they carried”, this novel brings about the effects of war on people, and especially how it defeats the human capacity for things such as love and hope. Bao Ninh offers this realistic picture of the Vietnam War’s impact on the individual Vietnamese soldier through use of a series of reminiscences or flashbacks, jumping backwards and forwards in time between the events most salient in memory, events which take on a different theme each time they are examined. His main protagonist Kien, who is basically Bao himself, looks back not just at his ten years at war, but at his final days at school, his work with an MIA team after the war, the slow disintegration of his life since, and the solace he finds in his writing. In this review I will show through examples throughout the book on to what extent the author’s war experiences are reflected in the novel.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    To further conflict, Israel constructed the Israeli West Bank barrier, separating Israeli territory from Palestinian territory. The Israeli West Bank barrier has been internationally condemned as a ruthless tactic to simply keep families apart. This is the captivity that news outlets such as Cable News Network, Fox News, and CBS News choose not to report on. After spending almost half of a year in Palestine (over a few summer breaks), I myself have experienced the deprivation and heartbreak that the Palestinians experience daily; my motivation to express the captivity Palestinians endure stems solely from my personal observations while traveling through the holy land during the summer after the eighth grade. The elongated list of conflicts instantaneously symbolizes that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will most likely linger on the foreseeable future, but I am here to elucidate the hidden captivity that the Palestinian community experiences…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    States by Edward Said

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Edward Said emphasizes the scattered, alienated nature of the Palestinian people. In my opinion, Said clearly displays that it is unfair to ask “What is it you Palestinians want?”. Palestine, once recognized as a country and a community, is now shattered into a plethora of pieces. These pieces, or people each with memories and experiences, were sprinkled all across the world. It would seem impossible to share national pride when one’s country does not technically exist. Palestinians do not have a unified home where they can share their sense of culture and their similar beliefs. Many Palestinians “speak of awdah (return)” (650). They want to restore their country, and glue together the broken pieces. Even if Palestine could be restored as a country, would it ever be the same? One cannot erase history. The Palestinians can never truly regain what they want, which is their identity and ethnocentricity.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Story of War

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The concept of peace plays an important role in John Knowles' novel A Separate Peace. As World War II rages in Europe and in the Pacific, the sixteen-year-old boys at the Devon school enjoy a sheltered existence knowing they are not yet subject to the call of duty. On the surface, "a separate peace" refers to this placid and protected life at a New England boarding school. The novel has darker psychological undertones, though, as it explores Gene's savage nature and his journey to reconcile his violent act against his best friend Finny. Gene revisits Devon and his past in an attempt to find his own separate peace.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    The 50 Years' War

    • 2410 Words
    • 10 Pages

    This study will also attempt to explain that Israel's “proactive” policy in dealing with its enemies is done out of survival, not imperialism as its enemies and critics claim and in an effort to gain understanding on why Israel does what is does.…

    • 2410 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Israel Position Paper

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Cited: -"The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in a Nutshell." Mideastweb N.p., 2007. Web. 9 Dec. 2009. .…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Iron Wall

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Since 2005, passing through a wall separating the West Bank. It separates Palestinians from Israelis, Palestinians, and especially Palestinians. In Germany, it is hardly noticed, while we should have a sense of what such a wall. We are committed to the destruction of Israel. The film, describing the impact of the Israeli separation wall, built largely on Palestinian land, is said to be one of the clearest expositions of the Israeli settlement policy in the West Bank. Reviewing the film, former President Jimmy Carter wrote, “The best description of the barrier, it’s routing and impact is shown in the film, The Iron Wall.”…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    War and Peace

    • 4516 Words
    • 19 Pages

    “Under what circumstances should the U.S use military force against other people/countries? What should be the goal of foreign policy? Is peace possible?”…

    • 4516 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Better Essays