The Palestine/Israel conflict is an issues that I was not particularly interested in before my college career. In my past four years here however, because of people I've met, my increasing awareness through the media, and my desire to work in the international development field, my interest has been steadily growing. To me, the humanitarian aspect of the conflict is the most important. However, I realize hat religious, political, and economic factors are intricately intertwine, and must be better understood in order to have a sustainable humanitarian impact. As such, I am very excited about this class. Given the nature of the Palestine/Israel conflict, it is very difficult to find unbiased information unless you actively seek it out. This class however offers the perfect opportunity to learn about both sides and the community as a whole. I think this is an extremely rare opportunity. As such, I am very excited to be a part of this class and larger project.
As is probably evident at this point, I am completely new to blogging. Writing about my reflections and feelings are also something I don't do very often. In fact I've never been able to keep a diary. As such, most of the writing I've done has been formal academic papers. I think it may take some time, but I'll try to make this sound more free flowing. Additionally, as many of the other mentioned, I am also technologically quite challenged. I am still amazed that we are going to be able to video conference with two separate communities and be able to gain a whole new real of knowledge through it.
As for the readings, I am actually very surprised that the Jerusalem festival was even attempted at the point here. Although it is very disappointing that is was not able to be put into action, I think it is extremely important that it was even attempted. Hopefully, the fact that it didn't happen once does not mean that it cannot happen again. Although the budget seems to be only one of the factors deterring the festival from happening, the fact that there are many layers to Jerusalem and her people is more widely understood. Even though the complexity of Jerusalem can never be conveyed through a display alone, the effort to do so, I think, was a relationship building process that I hope has and will continue to send ripples in the right direction.
I personally have no problem with leaving the blogs open. I think the discussions we will have are a microcosm of a global discussion, as such, I think leaving the blog open makes sense. However, I completely understand if others object to doing so.