Israel-Palestine Conflict
One part of Wednesday’s reading that caught my attention with regards to the Israel-Palestine situation was how it explained that there were certain views of each group in relation to their claims to the land. There is a settler and indigenous view of both groups. It explained how “Palestinians are seen as indigenous to the land and compared to the recent arrival of European Jews… Palestinian identity has constantly shifted through history and the colonial waves Palestine has experienced over the millennia are truly remarkable” (Ellis 2002, 76). This provides some insight into why certain people hold certain viewpoints towards the conflict. With Palestinians being viewed as indigenous, it makes sense that they have a deeply rooted and strong feeling of ownership of the region. On the other hand, it also makes sense that Jews feel that they should have ownership because of their history of exile and their religious ties to the region. As we discussed in class, a proposed solution to the conflict was to have both Jews and Palestinians move past both of their claims to the land and move forward and live together. What was further mentioned, which I had not previously thought about, was how Christian in nature this solution is. It really follows the Christian ideals of “forgive and forget”, which is not as accepted in the other two traditions. They both hold more of a traditional view of their sacred land, which makes sense given the way that Palestinians are seen as indigenous to the area and the tradition that Jews hold sacred in Jerusalem. As I looked into the conflict more and into potential resolutions, I found that statistically more Jewish people would support a different solution, a two state solution, as opposed to a single state. According to a poll, “just about ⅓ of Israelis support a two-state solution (19% support one-state, 9% a confederation… and the rest fall under “don’t know” or “other”” (https://www.heyalma.com/israel-guide/what-are-the-proposed-solutions-to-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/). It is interesting that more people would support the two state solution, but also dividing the borders in a way that would fully please both sides would be very difficult.
Nice post; I like how you bring in an outside source. I like how you talk about Ellis's suggestion, but I wonder if his understanding of indigenous and settler is a bit more complex in that even the quote you provide suggests that the indigenous are not uniform and were once settlers and that the settlers are part of a collective that include those who claim to be indigenous. What happens when multiple groups claim indigeneity?
ReplyDeleteAlso, remember that blogs work better with several shorter paragraphs rather than one really long paragraph.