West Bank

When people hear about the Arab-Israeli conflict, they start thinking about how did it start? During the late 19th century, Jews came back from Europe to Palestine where they previously existed. The Jewish people indicated that they were met with violent opposition from the Arabs especially the Palestinians. The same story is claimed to be still happening till today. The claimed story that was just told is not true. What actually happened is that there was a Zionist movement from Europe after…

According to German film theorist Siegfried Kracauer “films are the mirror of the prevailing society.” Through films viewers can understand the culture and sentiments of the people during the time of the film’s creation. Film directors study popular trends in their society and have those trends reflected back in their films to gain viewers and economic profit by providing something the audience can relate to. The preservation and study of films allow for the observation of the political…

The War That Started 40 Years of Conflict The Six Day War is what started or ignited the flame of today's conflict that has been going on for 40 years. It has caused lots of conflict between Israel and Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The fight that took place on June 5, 1967 transformed the middle east into what it is now. The Israelis were the only ones actually ready for a war. The Israelis attacked Egypt, Jordan and Syrian soldiers one morning as they were eating falafel and cucumbers. It was said…

After the first world war, the British empire began to collapse, as a result they decided to bequeath parts of their land as they could no longer afford to keep it. According to John Green’s crash course video on Palestine and Israel, in 1917 the Britishers created the Balfour Declaration, promising that they would give the Jews a homeland. They needed support from the Jews as their empire was collapsing, and the Jews needed a homeland as they had recently been persecuted from Europe subsequent…

29, 1947, to partition Palestine, then still under British mandate, into an Arab state and a Jewish state.” Though initially Arab guerilla forces, commanded by British officers were succeeding in capturing a number of settlements, including that of Jerusalem, by April the tide had turned and the Haganah seized the offensive and were recapturing areas. The day after the declaration of Israeli independence heavily supplied military forces from Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia…

In the essay To Any Would-Be Terrorists written by Nye, Shihab Naomi is related to the current situation of Israel/Palestine for this part of the world. The past conflicts of the situation between Israel and Palestine have been happening for a while for the last decades for example the Palestinian war in 1948 when five Arab nations which were Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt who invaded the territory of former Palestinian mandate, which lead the United Nations to declare…

This summary of Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory by Ahmad H. Sa’di and Lila Abu-Lughod will provide an examination of the Palestinian Diaspora in relation to the Palestinian exodus of 1948. Part One of this book is entitled “Places of Memory”, which consists of historical perspectives of scholars, such as Chapter 1’s article by Susan Slyomovics, related to Nakba through the memories of refugees in the town of Qula: “A different history historiography, grounded in testimonial…

Have you ever wondered how Palestine became occupied? How people suddenly started calling it Israel? I was shocked to see that because of the occupation in my country, Palestine, my grandparents had to flee the country, and how some people refer to it as Israel instead of the true name Palestine. Yasser Arafat was the founder of the Fatah. He spent most of his lifetime fighting Israel and that is why many Palestinians admire and respect him. Arafat died at the age of 75 from a mysterious blood…

When life gives you lemons what do you do with them? The obvious and cliche answer would be you make lemonade. But what happens when life gives you tasks or burdens that prove themselves to be nothing but a pain and a struggle? You fight them because that is your only chance of getting rid of them. Perhaps one of the best examples of this would be the partitioning of Israel in 1948. Before 1948 there was no country known as Israel, there was no state for Jews, there was no place that all…

Returning to one’s homeland is an age old theme in literature and film. It often involves a character or group of characters returning to a land, state, or province that their ancestors fled or was once taken from them. Palestinian filmmaker, Annemarie Jacir has explored the theme in at least two of her films, Salt of This Sea and When I Saw You. Israeli filmmaker, Ayelet Menahemi’s film, Noodle also tells a story of returning home but her main character isn’t returning to her physical…