categories I would choose for evaluation are:

Discussion

Video conferences

1. before had knowledge

2. questions

3. reaction

Blogs

1. interaction in blogs

2. class blog

Speakers

After reading over the background information on PYALARA is appears that the programs they are running have the best intentions for young Palestinians and helping them to deal with their frustrations of the occupation in new and artistic ways. The background information of the historical guideline of more recent events in the Gaza Strip and West Bank was also very interesting because the article really emphasized how much harder it was for women who are youth in nearly all aspects of life. I did not realize that Palestinian culture was so patriarchal and that so much social and cultural things were holding them back along with living in occupied territories. I also had learned in previous classes about Hamas and wonder if their negative view on a global perspective is making it extremely hard for the people of the Gaza strip to reach out to the international community, also dealing with Israel restricting them. I just read an article in the news how Hamas recently executed three Palestinians yesterday and all this negative media attention if focused on the area.

Menachem Klein's article started off somewhat confusing when talking about all the agreements that had been previously discussed on what to do with the city,if there should be walls and where they should be, how the city would be divided who would be allowed in etc, etc, but this is a very confusing subject so it is understandable that I got a little lost in all the different possible ideas of the division of the city. I did like though how he discussed all the different kinds of walls because that was something that I had never come across before, and when talking about the context of people in Jerusalem being involved he wrote "When a resident of East Jerusalem and one of West Jerusalem refer to themselves as “we,” it is rare for that pronoun to be grounded in the reality of their lives and consciousness."

It was good to read how people could cross over to seek medical attention in East Jerusalem if they were in need under certain conditions since there was better medical help there. It shows that people are able to work peacefully and always leaves room for hope in bad situations. It was unfortunate the the second intifada brought about a lack of joint understanding between Palestinians and Israelis in Jerusalem and less focus on coexistence.

If I had a question for Menachem Klein I would say do you think that by creating Jerusalem to be divided as how you stated "not a product of agreement but of war" it was doomed from the start to be a territory literally and consciously divided to the people who inhabited the land creating a sense of loss and yearning from each side? How do you think this affected the view of the city before 1967 and then after?

I feel like the presentation gave so much information but it was all done so clearly and concisely it was perfect! I feel like professor Herrmann just knew so much and it was a very insightful presentation. I actually started to see the conflict in a completely different light than what I had thought before and it was really interesting to see how my opinion was somewhat changed of everything going. I am also really excited to be talking with some people from a Palestinian media organization, and seeing even more perspectives of what it is like to live in or close to Jerusalem. I like how the one article says how the walls keep nothing out and nothing in but just bear witness to the flow of faiths and religion through the gates. It was interesting also to read how throughout the time line where the United States was and how closely they stayed by Israels side.

I liked how in the article about architecture it talks about how even though Israel was trying to embrace their own identity it was still taking a lot from arab culture and looks of buildings. I like how it talks about the different eras that people went thorugh with architecture because I want to do my project relating to architecture and Jerusalem and the article gave me a lot of information to look into. It was a different perspective on architecture and made me realize how much the building people see everyday could have deep meaning to thte peopel who designed them or how the dwelling of a city can create a sense of community through the styles of the buildings.

I found the video conference to be absolutely fascinating! It was very interesting to hear and speak with people living in Jerusalem. I had so many ideas about what it could be like to live there from documentaries and different videos I have scene in the past and one of the most striking things I thought was how I guess in the media the conflict is the main point that is portrayed and it is easy to make assumptions about how the different groups living there would interact. It was good to finally see some humans interacting and not just reading from books or articles. Although there was an emphasis on how the politics of it all is what is causing so much conflict and frustration amongst the people, if the general population is able to live peacefully or side by side how can governments ruin that so quickly ? This problem seems to become more and more complex the more that I learn and try to understand what is going on.

The idea that I have for my project is sort of still an idea in progress type of deal and I think that it would be divided into three separate sections but I do not know if I am trying to focus on too much. The first section that I wanted to focus on was the architecture in Jerusalem now and the buildings that are around today and how they came about. I wanted to focus on the more modern Jerusalem and the buildings that I would get to physically see or that were made in say the last century or so. I wanted to see if there was any information on the architecture relating to the current fighting and also how the buildings may have some cultural history. In the second section I wanted to focus on the art of people from the region and art dealing with conflict or how each side portrays their view through artistic expression. There was a few websites that I found one was called resistance art and the other was dealing with artists from Israel. The third topic that I was interested in was just artist in general throughout history that have painted pictures depicting Jerusalem in the background or as the main image in their painting, and to see how the city has evolved through artists interpretations throughout the ages, also just looking at artists from around the world that have used Jerusalem as a subject to paint and the different views that the city could be depicted as. I wanted to use images and pictures and then find some information to present to the class about the pictures that I chose to depict certain aspects of my project. I feel that this is very broad and could be an extremely large amount of information but I believe that I could incorporate all the topics together and still be able to focus in on certain aspects of interest to sort of broadly represent my idea as a whole flowing project.

After viewing the film I found it to be extremely insightful and gave a different perspective on cultural aspects of certain parts of Israel. There seems to be a lot of identity issues for people in the region and how that could be extremely confusing when people are trying to grasp a sense of who they are.

I like the way the story is written and flows very nicely. The gas mask incident seems like the people are always having to jump through hoops and deal with unnecessary extras to try and get the things needed to remain safe, and not even see a final result of secured safety since non of them ended up with masks. I also found it quite amusing how the little dog was able to recieve a passport so easily but it takes years and sometimes people will never be able to get an ID for Jerusalem.

I like how she talked about taking a step back and seeing how ridiculous everything was that they had to go through living and what they had to go through to try and live a normal life. Rokem had a very interesting writing style and the words flowed together very well. I liked the comparisons that were made and the way it was written was very interesting. I am sort of confused by the last line though because it says something about Jerusalem being undivided but then talks of two capitals for two states for two nations which would leave me to believe that it is shared or something along those lines.

I also wanted to talk about my project since I forgot to in the last blog and am thinking of doing something with the architecture of Jerusalem portrayed through paintings in the early ages and now with photographs that are available and how it has changed or the perspective from one artist to another throughout history has differed.

channels of rage

The film channels of rage seems like it will be extremely interesting and to get a perspective from I guess more relevant or less historical viewpoint is going to be something new. All the events we have learned about in class will probably just sort of come together and are leading up to now where there are still extreme issues with conflict. The film seems to have been shown at many festivals and received quite a few rewards according to the marketing website for it, which was Ruth Disken. It is amazing to learn how the rappers are able to put their own perspective on the issues in the Middle East and the conflict while using music as a messenger. I also find it incredible how such dedication was put into the film to have it span a three year period. It is interesting how much music can have an influence when used as a catalyst for working towards some kind of resolution but alone will need help from people to want to change. I like how in our class we are seeing all types of perspective of the conflict and able to see so many differing sides. The video conference was also extremely interesting and enjoyable. After reading an article on line how Mr. Tamari’s house had been destroyed sounded devastating, but then to actually see the person that this has happened to and to her his perspective n issues is quite extraordinary. I feel like this documentary will be extremely relatable and will show a different perspective on the current conflict.

week six

Reading the first article that dealt with Wasif Jawhariyyeh was extremely interesting to read because it gave a first person perspective mixed with historical context throughout. I was fascinating to read of things happening during the early twentieth century from a person seeing and experiencing these things for himself. Going through nearly every aspect of what society was like from education, culture, issues dealing with religion and music are all intertwined even more so then I could have ever imagined. Before the city was divided into four quarters it is always interesting to read about how Jerusalem used to be and how there may have even been some kind of mingling amongst all the different people in the city. To see the changes that happened once the British mandates were put in place seems saddening when dealing with issues of restriction to access of certain areas of the city. It was very interesting to read of different cultural and musical aspects of life that were popular back then.

Upon reading the second paper I liked how it started off by talking about just the specific words he was choosing to use in his essay and dealing with the word 'nativism'. It was interesting to show the different examples even though briefly from other regions of the world where there was some type of struggle with who was there first and how they are all sort of connected in certain aspects or another. I liked how Tamari wrote "Jerusalem became the arena of an intellectual circle that regarded the peasantry as the soul of the nation, the salt of the earth, uncontaminated by radical intrusions of technology and a Westernizing culture." This line for some reason just really stuck out to me in the writing. It was interesting how they viewed the Palestinian culture and what it meant to the history of Jerusalem. It was interesting to read of the different aspects of Palestinian culture and views on certain historical aspects of the region and why the people are the way they are. Also the issues dealing with modernization and the western ways seen as coming in and having influence are interesting. It was unusual for me to read about how the saints were also viewed and the cultural context that they held.