Throughout this course
we spent time talking about not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but more
broadly the cultures and people that make up each side and the state of Israel,
mainly focusing on Jerusalem. We used
many different learning approaches including reading a novel by Karen
Armstrong, also reading different articles from many authors and using a blog
for responses and comments to each other’s reading responses. We watched films and talked to many different
people living in the conflict area or who are helping to change the situation
in the conflict area. We held whole
class discussions where anyone could speak their mind on a reading or project
we had studied or something they had learned on their own. Overall I liked how the class focused on the
conflict and the disputed area but in a way that gave hope to the situation and
made it seem like a resolution could be found or at least that the people could
learn to respect one another enough to live together in one area.
This semester we started off our class by reading the book
One City: Three Faiths by Karen
Armstrong. In her book she discussed the
history of the city and area surrounding Jerusalem. By going into detail about all three
religions I learned a lot of things about Judaism and Islam specifically, two
faiths I have never studied much about. While
learning the history was incredibly important and helped me understand the main
and deep seeded feelings each side has in the conflict, I felt the book was
very tedious and often hard to follow. I
found myself constantly getting caught up in the small details of the book such
as all of the names of people and places and their specific stories. While these were all interesting I didn’t
find them particularly helpful to the class or memorable. For future classes I think that the time
would be better spent reading specific chapters of the book that dealt with the
necessary history needed for background information. Another route could possibly be having
students read the book ahead of time over summer or winter break in preparation
for the course as to not have to spend so much time on the book.
In
order to keep track of reading responses and weblogs discussing more personal
information about ourselves and our opinions to share with our fellow
classmates we used blogs to write them out and post them online. The blog was hard to adjust to at first but
once used to the format it is a good place to put up reading responses and
weblog journals. It is definitely
necessary to have reading responses to keep up and produce an individual
opinion. However I found that the blog
comments were not as effective as when we held open dialogue class discussions
about the readings and video conferences.
Last semester I took I-204 and I remember each class period we would
meet in small groups, almost always with different people, and discuss the
readings. After that we would designate
one person to tell our group opinion to the class. This, in my opinion, was a much easier format
to get everyone involved in discussion even those too intimidated to speak in
larger class discussions. It was also a
good way to get to know fellow classmates on a more personal level. A way to learn their ideas and opinions on
certain topics.
This
semester during our large class discussions, though I didn’t speak often, I
found listening to my classmates share their knowledge and questions much more
interesting than just reading it on the blog.
When in a group conversation it is easier to facilitate thought and
bounce ideas off each other. Often when
someone says something it will remind someone else of something they wanted to
bring up. Other times it will create a
healthy debate between two or more classmates over conflicting ideas or perhaps
a hot topic in government policy. I
think in the future more class discussions about the blogs, rather than doing
blog comments, would be a more effective way of getting more people involved
and having more of a discussion. Though
this was hard for us to do with a larger class, I think smaller groups is
always a great way to share ideas and a good chance to learn from at least a
few of your classmates.
One
thing I would have liked to have seen discussed more throughout the class would
be the current news from the conflict going on today. While we took a thorough look at the history
of Jerusalem and of all three religions who have claimed the territory, I don’t
feel enough time was spent on the history of the creation of Israel as a state
and how the Palestinians originally became “displace” people. I also would have liked to have gone over the
different intifadas a little bit and discussed things that were happening today
politically to end all of this. I
personally came into the class without much previous or even current knowledge
on the conflict and would have really liked to have had a chance to hear more
from classmates and possibly even politicians who were involved in making
decisions about things like whether or not a two-state solution would be
beneficial. This could be something
that could be done by possibly having someone each class or each week bring in
a new news article about the conflict area or a current policy up for debate
affecting the area. Just a short discussion
at the beginning of class I feel would really be a good way to keep students
updated on the current issues in the area and keep the class discussion current
as well. While this would be something
to maybe consider discussing in depth if time, I found the class focus of hope
for the future and how to create peace a great way of going about discussion in
the class as opposed to focusing on all of the hurt and conflict that has gone
on.
The
parts of the class we discussed what was happening today to create peace, such
as Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, were
incredibly influential and in my personal opinion one of my favorite parts
about the class. To see that kind of
hope for the future in a situation that seems so messy there is no way out is
very moving. It is something you keep
with you and that presses you to want to get involved, even in a small way to
help a bigger project. Because of this
the film Knowledge is the Beginning is
something I would definitely recommend keeping for the next classes. Along with
Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim’s project, I thought the overall focus on
music and children as a hope for the future were really good themes for the
class. The children being something of
such a large focus really surprised me but in the end it makes perfect
sense. I really enjoyed the time and the
focus we put into looking into these topics.
We
had many video conferences with different speakers throughout the
semester. While technology wasn’t always
on our side, the speakers really helped to give us different perspectives from
many different people affected by the conflict, or affecting the conflict, in
many different ways. Being as removed
from the danger of the conflict as most of us are in America the times we got
to sit and talk to people in the area dealing with the armies and the disarray
everyday really gave one a new perspective and outlook on the conflict
area. It was also amazing to have a
chance to ask questions to and really just listen to those talk who have spent
their lives and are still spending their lives making a difference in the
area. I think it was very moving to hear
so many different people talk about the goal to conflict resolution being
through teaching the children.
Throughout
all our different assignments and speakers during the semester the thing I
found most interesting and actually most conducive to learning were the group
projects. These projects were not only
fun to partake in but very interesting to watch as well. When bouncing around different ideas for our
project we stumbled upon so many random websites and topics surrounding
Jerusalem today. Learning about
different things like the culture of both sides of the conflict or the politics
of the conflict through our classmates and their interesting presentations were
possibly one of the most influential things during the semester. By encouraging students to use videos in
their presentations there were some very neat ones people found and even
created on their own. I also think
letting the student groups pick their own topics created many very different
and almost random discussions about Jerusalem that normally wouldn’t be taught
in the classroom. By sparking the
students creativity and allowing them to take their project in any direction we
had a lot of really exciting projects going in all different directions. Getting to hear students talk about these
very different topics for a class period was a great way to end the semester,
and getting to have a final day at the end to discuss them all and raise
questions really helped clear certain things up as well.
One
thing I was actually surprised about with this class was the ability for it to
focus on the conflict and on the Israeli culture and the Palestinian culture
while remaining very unbiased. As we
talked about at the beginning and with Karen Armstrong no one is going to be
naturally unbiased in a conflict. At one
point I believe we even discussed how not talking about something can create a
bias. However, I felt the way in which
the class topics and discussions were structured each side was able to be
represented and discussed in an equally fair light. I think that this had to do more so than
anything with the structure of the class.
Who was chosen to be a guest speaker and the different articles we read
throughout the semester were all chosen to give equal opportunity to learn
about and discuss each side of the conflict.
