Journal: 4-2

Conflict

     Two weeks ago I asked the question of what the current situation is like with the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Through my extensive research, I didn't find too many detailed reports but I notice that things aren't really changing over in the Middle East and if there is change then it's usually for the worse and not to better the society. It seems as though more people are attempting to leave the area all together and move to another place in order to avoid war and make their own choices in life instead of someone else making their decisions for them.

     This week we've only had one day of class so far and in that one day of class we talked about a variety of things. One of the first things we talked about was this screen saver that helps benefit many different charities if you download it onto your computer. How it works is that it uses your computer to run data for certain causes such as the American Cancer Society so that research can take even less time than ever before. After that discussion we finished the rest of the documentary "Promises". It was very interesting to see the perspective of the conflict from the vulnerable viewpoint of a child who has grown up with the fighting going on around them.

     In my opinion, the most powerful part of the movie was when the two Jewish twins crossed over the check points into Palestinian territory to play with Arab children who were also being followed in the documetary. Even though they couldn't communicate with eacother very well, they still acted like normal children around eachother and played soccer and did other activities. It was as if they weren't even surronded by the conflict at all. However, it was hard when all the children sat down to discuss how the experiment went. They like the experiment because they liked being friends with eachother but they were sad that the Jewish boys weren't allowed to stay because they weren't Arab and that they would probably not see eachother again.

     This reminded me alot of the movie "The Boy In The Striped Pajamas" where a regular German boy who lives near a concentration camp befriends a Jewish boy within the concentration camp. Every day they would talk even though they were seperated by an electric fence and the German boy expressed desires to join the Jewish boy. However, when he does, he ends up dying with his Jewish friend within the camp. The situation is very similar to that of a Jwish boy befriending a Arab child in the Middle East.

I end today with a question: Where are all the children now who were in the film "Promises"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict

"Israel Makes Children Cry." Instablogs - Mobile. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://marcovilla.instablogs.com/entry/israel-makes-children-cry/>.

http://www.411mania.com/movies/dvd_reviews/99379/The-Boy-In-The-Striped-Pajamas-DVD-Review.htm