The Civilian Sufferer

After sixty-five years, you’d think someone, somewhere, would be able to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What people don’t seem to understand is, it won’t disappear if we simply dismiss it as unsolvable. It will remain one of the world’s major issues unless people make an effort for change, for an answer. Some people ask, why even bother? What’s the point? The point is, people are suffering because of this. Not only Palestinians, Israelis, too. Everyone. 1,104 Israelis and 6,829 Palestinians have been killed in the past four years alone. (source) These are the people who aren’t guilty of urging hatred or violence towards the other side. They are the ones who suffer, and it has to stop.

“Life here has turned upside down; there is war in the Middle East. Everybody is afraid. Last night no one slept well, including me... Three Israeli mothers didn’t sleep well, because they were thinking about their sons kidnapped by Hizbullah. Dozens of Palestinian mothers were not sleeping well because they have lost their sons... A lot of religious people, Jews and Muslims, did not sleep well because they were thinking about Joseph’s Tomb and Tiberias Mosque, both destroyed by mobs this week... We hope the leaders will make a quiet situation for us in the Middle East... They must do it quickly. We want to sleep. We want to sleep. We want to sleep.” (source) These are ordinary people. Civilians. Not just Palestinians and not just Israelis. In the quote Sami al Jundi illustrates the hardships of both groups as a result of the war. They aren’t the people in the government, giving orders to continue the attacks. They aren’t the soldiers carrying out those attacks. They are mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and friends. They could be anyone. They could be you. They are the ones who suffer the most. They are the ones at risk. They are the ones who want and need this to end.

“I expected legal documents, but instead I was looking at childish drawings made with colored pencils and markers. The first was a tank. The second depicted soldiers on a bloody battlefield...‘My nine-year-old son, Nissan, drew these. He was born into this bloody conflict, just like you.’... I examined the images more carefully. One portrayed the little boy’s family outside his house next to a large, leafy tree. Upon closer inspection, even this scene of domestic tranquility showed evidence of war; Nissan had sketched a bomberplane overhead.” (source) War is not something a child should have to grow up with. It is not something that should be considered normal to them, an aspect of daily life. It should not be this way for anyone. Children in Israel are growing up this way. Everywhere they turn, there is war. Everything they hear is about war. It is in their homes, in their schools, in their minds, always. How can they be expected to change things? Much like Sami al Jundi, because of their environment, many of them will grow up with hatred for the other side, because that is all they know. They will continue this endless cycle of violence and instability in what is supposed to be their home and their holy place. If the youth in Israel came together, Palestinians and Israelis alike, and spoke out against the conflict, there could be hope. The people fighting this war are not the ones who are suffering. Terrorists and extremists and the government are not suffering. It’s the people of this land, no matter their background, who are suffering. Their suffering needs to end.

A Death Season in Darfur

Chris .T  

Humanities 10C

A Death Season in Darfur

Throughout history there had been moments in our world that we have done things that impacted our society and it can really mess up who we are as humans and we are responsible for the things we do. In history there were times when people end lives of millions because of their background and that they’re different from others and those are known as a genocide. There had been genocides throughout history that really affected people and their way of life for instance the holocaust and the rwandan genocide both impacted society and we as a community do everything we can to resolve that issue. Unfortunatley, we haven’t necessarily ended that issue because today in Darfur, Sudan millions of people are being murdered. Unlike Rwanda, this genocide happens to continue to this day and many lives are being ended everyday and not many people around the world know that this is happening.

The main cause of the genocide was that the sudanese liberation army took arms against the sudanese government and the government responded by unleashing a deadly force known as the janjaweed, a militia supported by the government and their mission is to kill a huge mass of people including young children. In Darfur it’s mostly a muslim society and there were many tribal and economic differences in that area. The government of Sudan saw the muslim society as pure dominant than the other african tribes and this is what also unleashed the Arab janjaweed to target the non arab people because they weren’t as good as them. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 lives were lost in Darfur and ever since the SLA took arms against the government, more than 2.6 million people had been displaced because of the violence.

Very little is done to stop the genocide and not much of the international community is responding to this madness, similar to the Rwandan genocide back in 1994 but some are beginning to take action. In 2004 The United States government declared it as a genocide under the united nations genocide convention. There are currently UN presence in Darfur and they have been trying to stop the genocide and helping the people of Darfur to escape and take refuge, but unfortunately it cannot be stopped.(In March 2009, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for directing a campaign of mass killing, rape and pillage against civilians in Darfur, ) The international community also issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar al Bashir for being the man behind the genocide and sending out the janjaweed to massacre millions of innocent people and destroying their villages.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir  Photograph: Philip Dhil/EPA (picture taken by http://www.guardian.co.uk

In the book Darfur Diaries By Adam Shapiro, he goes on a journey to the Darfur region along with other independent film makers Aisha Bain and Jen Marlowe to interview the refugees and survivors that escaped the violence in Darfur. They all hear the different stories from each refugee and they discovered that their family had been killed or missing during the violence and the film also learn how their villages in Darfur had been attacked by government forces of Sudan and the deadly janjaweed militia. Also many children dont have an education due to the government destroying schools. As quoted " The government bombed and destroyed our school, killing people." (45) This was said by a refuge who was being interviewed by the filmmakers and told his experiences. This shows how much the genocide impacts people and their lives have been ruined.

Today this deadly genocide happens to still occurr at this moment as we speak and it's been the worst since the Jewish holocaust during WWII. We as nations of this earth should come together and take action to stop this from continuing. As of now we all know about the UN presence im Darfur and they have assited the darfurians in provding them with food and shelter and health aid. The United nations is not the only organization thats providing help. There are organizations that are not only helping in Darfur, also they are spreading awareness throughout the world.Organizations such as Save Darfur (http://www.savedarfur.org/ )are spreading awareness everywhere around the globe. Their main task is to get the communitys attention and to encourage everyone to take action and to provide aid for the people of Darfur. This organization provides info on how to get involved and steps to take action. They are telling us that we as a society can take action and help stop this from happening.

Jerusalem...Holy land or Battlefield?

Riley Rappaport

10A

                Jerusalem: Holy land or Battlefield?

    Keeping peace is much harder than breaking it. Peace is a valuable part of society that people take for granted and therefore, lose stability between them and the people around them. But what makes peace so easy to break? The answer in this situation is religion and land. Jerusalem was a Holy land for the people of Israel when they formed and then they were attacked 1948 by 6 Arab nations. After the Israelis were attacked, in 1967 they surprise attacked Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and won the war in 6 days. Then in 1987 the Palestinians rose up against the Israelis for their independence. There have been conflicts between Israel, Palestine and the surrounding countries many different occasions, an example of this is Intifada 1 and 2. During warfares many bombs were exchanged between Israel and Palestine leaving many citizens dead. Between 1991 and 2003 there have been about 1000 Israeli deaths and 2550 Palestinian deaths. From the beginning of the first Intifada there have been 5500 Israeli deaths and 24000 Palestinian deaths (source). Between these countries, it is extremely hard to communicate with one another because the languages are different so therefore they can agree to peace or settle things rationally.

Religious warfare has created almost 2000 child deaths and its still growing. The cycle between these conflicts is peace that is followed by bloodshed. Conflict has been growing because the constant battle for  the holy land Jerusalem. Children have been living with this warfare their whole life and have been affected, by loss of family and friends since bombs were blowing up in the streets. Children have also been affected by the conflict by turning into child soldiers. In the book The Hour of Sunlight, we get to know Sami Al Jundi, a Palestinian teenager while the Israeli-Palestinian War was occurring. As a child he felt very strongly about the everlasting conflict and believed all of the stereotypes and single stories of the Israeli people. But as he grew older he also grew more passionate about bombs and warfare because of hardships under the Israeli rule, along with his friends. One day he was assembling a bomb with his friends and it went completely wrong. It ended up blowing up, killing one of his friends and put Sami in jail.   “He was right. I knew I would be in prison for many years. This was my life now. The nearly inedible food was an attempt to weaken us physically and psychologically. It would not work on me, I decided. The next morning, I convinced myself that everything on the breakfast tray tasted like it came from my mother’s kitchen. I cleaned my plate” (Al Jundi 104). After ten years in prison Sami decided to take the non-violence tactic to have political change. He traveled all over Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza stip teaching his movement of non-violence. He became a useful source on how a biased person at the beginning can learn from his mistakes and become trustworthy. This goes to show how corrupted people can change into peacemakers. But it also shows how hard it is to keep peace and how easy it is to break it. And when peace is broken, people from both sides die or go to prison.

    So how do we spread awareness about this conflict? One thing we can do to spread awareness is create a partition where student sign it and then give it to the school board. The partition will explain how we need to put this conflict in the curriculum of schools across the board. Another thing that we could do to spread awareness is the media. Although there is already a significant amount of media on this topic, not enough people watch it. But what we can do is create blogs and use online access to the media. Over 500 million people use facebook and 50% of those people log on everyday. If there becomes more awareness about the conflict on facebook, 1 in every 12 people will know about it. 

The Hidden Women

by Keiyana Christie, 10A

“If there’s no peace in Afghanistan, it’s women who will suffer most.” When the Taliban took Afghan under their control, they took with them the rights for every woman, and the happiness that came with them. Even in other places of the world, women lose their rights to work, be happy, and live the life that they have planned for themselves; but that doesn't mean it's okay. It means it's time to put the human rights violation to an end.

In Afghanistan today, almost all the women have become unemployed since the Taliban took control. Laws restrict them from doing certain things without having their husband’s approval, and not abiding by the rules may result in the execution of an Afghan woman. Some women believe so strongly in their rights that they’ve sacrificed their life in the hopes that their friends, family, and children may have freedom in the future.  

One Afghan woman, Seeta, showed her pain through a poem about how she feels hidden under the Taliban. She must wear a burqa (a piece of cloth covering the face and only shows

(Source: cbsnew.com)

the eyes) because those are the requirements given by the Taliban. In a part of her poem she says, "Foreign women come to see us,

under burqa, take our picture—

we are interesting, novel for them.

They don’t understand

our burqas are jail and safety made of fabric.

We are hidden beneath blue cloth,

confined, yet secure."

A piece of cloth alone makes these women feel like they are trapped in a jail cell, and the only way out is to put their entire life at risk. At the same time, they are forced to feel a sense of security because they know if they don't wear this blue piece of cloth, they will be viewed as an outsider, and be executed without any mercy.

(indianexpress.com)

The number of women and children affected by the Taliban grows higher and higher each day. Every year, 309,000 children under the age of five die from malnutrition, and over 90 percent of girls are banned from having an education. Women are not allowed to wear jewelry, paint their nails, cut their hair, or do other things that any average woman would do. One Taliban man said, "There are only two places for Afghan women - in her husband's house, and in the graveyard." These are the things that the women must live by everyday.

So it's clear that the women of Afghanistan are living in a world of darkness everyday, and to make it worse, they must watch their children experience the sadness too. As humans, it's only right that we take action and help to change the lives of these women and children. More importantly, women must understand that this is a serious situation, and that it could've been one of us. We may not be able to stop the Taliban tomorrow, but we can definitely make a change over the course of time.

No One Deserves a Life of Fear

No matter what the age, race or ethnicity, NO ONE deserves to live a life of violence or fear.

In a variety of locations around the globe, civilians are surrounded by violence and live in fear because of it. In the middle east people live with this fear daily. Specifically in Israel and Palestine. For near a century, Israelis and Palestinians have been disputing over land, including The West Bank, The Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem. The political disputes over the territories have lead to violence and war endangering the lives of innocent civilians in both states. Despite all the effort and support from the UN and international community, an agreement has yet to be made. And as a result the situation is slowly being neglected while violence continues to rise.

    In 2000, Israel proposed an agreement to give Palestine a territory in Gaza and nearly all of the West Bank. The Palestines refused this offer and responded with bombing that killed more than 1000 Israelis. Five Years later, Israel withdrew from Gaza, but the Palestines didn’t populate the region for shelter. Instead they build rocket bases that destroyed towns and villages claiming the lives of many in southern Israel. Due to the constant change of territory, Israelis and Palestinians are frequently interacting with one another which results in violence, injury, and casualties in towns near the Green Line, borders. And when one group is attacked, they retaliate and the violence goes in a cycle. The cycle of violence has resulted in the death of over 2,546 Palestinians and 816 Israelis, and the injury of over 23,930 Palestinians and 5,616 Israelis from the beginning until now. Sadly, young children have been affected by this cycle. Currently, a total of 1,619 kids have lost there life to this conflict in warfare. 129 Israeli children and 1,519 Palestinian children have been victims to this conflict and more and more continue to lose their lives today.

    Imagine your child or loved one at risk every single day because of a situation like this. Even I can’t think of how I would feel if I lost my younger sibling or cousin. I would be absolutely devastated.

    In the memoir, The Hour of Sunlight by Sami Al Jundi, Al Jundi w tells the story of his youth and his hatred for the Israeli occupation and his ambition for overthrowing it. In the beginning of the memoir Al Jundi retells the story of his mothers youth and what she experienced when she was very young. She was also blind, which in her view is a gift and a curse because although she couldn’t see the beautiful things in the world, she couldn’t see the evil. She discussed how her father died when she was young. She said, “My father…was shot in the heart...I was only five years old”, (7, Al-Jundi). In addition to the sorrow of losing her father, she was forced to cope with death threats from Israelis who were responsible for a massacre resulting in the death of over 100 innocent villagers. "[The israelis] are warning us to leave the village or they will do...what they did to the people in Deir Yassin...where over one hundred villagers had been killed", (9, Al-Jundi).

    These massacres, attacks and threats have been extremely frequent and nothing is changing, its only getting worse. As citizens of a privileged country with a strong government to provide us with safety, its our duty to help those abroad who aren't blessed with the privileges that we have. We must raise awareness and spread the word to let the government know that we care for the Israelis and Palestinians before they're are entirely neglected and violence possibly reaches the extremes of genocide. We can use social networking like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to spread the word. Together we CAN do this.