Inequality in Jerusalem

During the readings, one of the things that caught my attention from “Second Person Singular” by Sayed Kashua was the interactions between different social / socioeconomic groups in Jerusalem. During the dinner, it is explained how inflation occurred because of the influx of immigrants. The immigrants are described as “rich, exploitable foreigners” (Kashua 2011, 5), which depicts how the locals view them. In contrast, it is explained how the locals prefer the ‘foreigners’ to the “rest of the riffraff that were apartment hunting around there—Palestinian collaborators who had been relocated to east Jerusalem by the Israeli security services” (Kashua 2011, 6). These viewpoints are interesting, but they are pretty much what is expected between these groups. A bit further in the story, it is explained how the lawyer chose to represent a ‘stronger clan’ in an internal conflict in Jerusalem. All of this disparity between social groups reminded me about a topic that was discussed heavily in a previous course I was in, Oppression and Liberation in the U. S. This topic was the conflict between the Native Americans and the European settlers that occurred when North America was being settled. During North American expansion and even to the present day, there is a disparity between the way that Native Americans are treated and the power they hold with regard to their land. Since the beginning of settlements in North America, Natives were forced off their land, mistreated, and had a small say about what happens to their sacred lands. This continues even to the present day, with an example being the Dakota Access Pipeline being installed though a Native American community. The community does not want the pipeline and it could potentially damage their settlement. What is interesting about both situations and both communities is that there is a cycle of inequality present. In Jerusalem, it is between different religious and social groups, with division occurring even in such a small city. With the Native Americans, it is between them and the way the U. S. Government has treated them. Hopefully both can be resolved in the future in a way that is helpful to the communities.