Final Post: Palestine/Israel Conflict

Throughout the course of the semester our group had to discuss and identify the reasons why the attacks between Palestine and Israel occurred. Since the topic was so broad, we looked back at the history of the two lands in order to gain full insight and understanding of why there was a conflict. Our first post, we focused on the history of the land, religion and the occupation along with mistreatment of the Palestinians under Israeli rule. Our second post focused more on the current events, such as the 50 day Gaza war, and the land disputes over which country the West Bank belonged to. Next, we wrote about the social and economic issues both sides face over the land dispute. Lastly, we discussed the BDS movement and their stance on banning Israeli goods in order to promote human rights in Palestine. Throughout the course, we had to discuss both sides fairly and non-judgmentally.

Each blog resulted in someone taking action and almost leading the group with the tasks at hand. Being seven people in the group, we broke down the questions on the syllabus accordingly: who, what, where, why, when, how. With each of us doing a question it was better for us to stay focused on the topic and not get too confused or confusing while representing the information. We used ‘Google Doc’ to post our paragraphs so we could all see each other’s work and discuss the topic further if necessary. The seventh person in the group would be the one to edit the paragraphs together, add photos and upload to the blog. Each round, we would take turns appointing a topic, a question to answer, and an editor. We made it so that everyone was fairly participating and not one person was involved with the whole process. Our group was understanding of the responsibilities each person had and was always willing to help.

Over the summer I was in Lebanon while the whole conflict was happening. Watching the news while over there and watching it in America was so different because of the perspectives and views on the matter. I was knowledgeable about the land disputes from family and friends whose families lived in Gaza, but I just never really comprehended the whole issue until I did this blog post. I had to be cautious about sources now being biased towards each side, which proved to be more difficult than imagined. When we were discussing possible topic questions for the blog we had to make sure that we evenly spoke about both sides and not show favoritism or play the victim card to the opposing country. In the past, group projects in college have been a great struggle; everyone has a different schedule so getting together was nearly impossible. With this group, however, we always stayed connected via a group chat and we just made that our form of communication. Our first blog was a little rough because we did not want to over step our boundaries with one another with annoying each other with too many questions about what we were supposed to do, but we got into a pattern after our second blog and we made it work for us ever since. Our group was completely understanding and so helpful that it did not really feel very stressful having to work together.