Assignment # 2
1. How would you describe each of the documentaries? Is it "good history"?
I think they were both great documentaries and each of them presented the topic really well. I watched both episodes of “Al-Nakba” and only like thirty minutes of “Israel – Birth of a Nation” but I still think it was great, also based on some comments I read. In “Al-Nakba” we see the issue from the Palestinian perspective which they define as the “catastrophe” day. We learn this problem had been going on long before 1948, since the Ottoman Empire. It was interesting to see how one year marks so different things to two nations; for Israelis 1948 marks the creation of their state but for Palestinians it marks the catastrophe when thousands of them were forced out of their homes. I do believe these documentaries are good history as they both share two different perspectives on the same issue and they do it really well.
2. Please answer:
• If you were Israeli, why might you think you should live on the land that is now Israel?
Because the land originally belonged to my ancestors and it was about time that we returned and have a Jew state which hadn’t existed for a long time.
• If you were Palestinian, why might you think you should live on the land that is now Israel?
Because we had been there for over 2000 years and had already established our families, and our culture there.
3. Please answer
• If you were Israeli, how might you feel about the creation of the state of Israel and the war that began the next day?
I would be very satisfied that we finally got our state and would see the war as the price to pay for having got it back. I would also blame Palestinians for not accepting what was right and causing such chaos because of that.
• If you were Palestinian, how might you feel about the creation of the state of Israel and the war that began the next day?
It would’ve been quite disappointing and frustrating because I had been living there my whole life and to suddenly be thrown out of my own home wasn’t fair, and to have my land taken from me wasn’t either. I would see the war as fighting for my home and my family, and the land that belonged to us; also because Israel wanted to take control over everything.
4. Please answer:
• If you were Israeli, how might you feel about the 1967 war and its outcome?
It marked us and turned us into what we wanted to be. Perhaps not in the best way, but it did benefited us greatly. We grew, we build better international relations, our economy improved, and many other good things came from this. So if I was Israeli, I would feel that even if it cost us more than it should we got what we wanted.
• If you were Palestinian, how might you feel about the 1967 war and its outcome?
I would be even more frustrated because if anything, the outcome greatly benefited Israel. Going into this war Israel was quite weak but when it ended it had expanded its borders to a great extent and acquired more power while doing that. It came out stronger. And we lost a lot