Israel/ Palestine Follow up.

"Bomby night". By: Arvind Jujare

Last Summer, there was a lot of talk about Israel and its relationship with Palestine. It was in the news and then it wasn't. Since then, Palestinians have started trying to join the International Criminal Court. They have made it clear that what they want is for the international community to investigate War Crimes that Israel committed against them last summer (Kelemen, Michele).



The Full Story: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=376092020&m=376515777

I had to look for this news. It was not a story that I would have known about unless I looked for this. The last news story I heard about Israel was not one on how they treat the Palestinians. The last one I heard was about snow in Israel had nothing to do with the Palestinian Israeli conflict, it actually had to do with Snow. In Israel and Palestine, most of the Christians are Orthodox Christians. For this reason they celebrated Christmas on January 7, 2015 instead of our traditional December 25th date. According to Wikipedia, about 2% of the population in Israel is Christian, so a small minority of people do celebrate Christmas. This year for Christmas Israel got to experience a white Christmas.  This is the 3rd year in a row that it snowed in Israel. Unlike the U.S. snow is a big deal in Israel, this means roads completely shut down. There is not infrastructure to deal with snow (radio show unknown).

Conversation:

I have a friend who has second cousins in Palestine. I asked him what they thought of the snow. "They Love it", he told me. As Ahmed tells me, snow really was not the big deal that the news story I had heard made it out to be. He even showed me a video of some of his family playing in the snow.

After I posted my last Israel themed blog, Ahmed sat down and briefly talked with me about their side of the story. He noted that it is a travesty what the Israelis did to the Palestinians; now people are finally seeing how bad Israel has been to the Palestinian people. 

A little about Ahmed:
I work with Ahmed, but webru don't know Ahmed by his first name, and we certainly don't call him by his last name, Abuhalawah. We here at work just call him "Willie". Willie grew up here in States, just outside of Detroit in Dearborn, Michigan. He is the son of Palestinian immigrants, that moved here well before he was born.

Both his parents had moved out of Palestine to escape the conflict when they were quite young (Abuhalawah). They hadn't known each other in Palistine, but they both moved to and grew up in nearby Jordan, where they eventually met. Eventually, they both moved to the U.S. together.

Ahmed told me that back then it was a lot easier for people to escape to the U.S. It was a lot easier to get Visa's. Now, he tells me, many people have to get married in order get over here. He thinks that this might be driving up arranged marriages between those already living here and those that are there. Many of these people who are already here would more then likely not go into an arranged marriage otherwise. He also feels that at times this arrangement is one sided, where the only person befitting is the person who is coming here.

He gives me an example of a female friend he had who was married off to someone she didn't know, and had only talked on the phone with a couple times. While the guy was educated, his degrees were not recognized here in the U.S. For this reason she ended up basically supporting this person that she really did not know. 


Work Cited:

Abuhalawah, Ahmed (Willie). Personal Conversation. 1 October 2014, 9 January 2015, 20 January 2015.

Abuhalawah, Ahmed (Willie). Personal Conversation. 

D. Fadi. "Snowing in the Middle East". January 2015.

Harrioson, Leah. "Isreal". Daily Dost of Culture. 12 August 2014. Retrieved: January 19, 2015. Website: http://leahsdailydose.blogspot.com/2014/08/israel.html

"Israel". Wikipedia. Retrieved: January 19, 2015. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israe
Jujare, Arvind. "Bomby Night". August 2014

Kalemen, Michele. "Mideast Conflict Could Bog Down International Criminal Court". NPR. Published: 11 January 2015. Retrieved: January 19, 2015. Website: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/01/09/376092020/mideast-conflict-could-bog-down-international-criminal-court

Unknown. Unknown News Story about Snow in Israel. Heard: 6 January 2015.

Alternate Source: "Jerusalem in Panic Mode Ahead if Expected Snow Storm". 7 January 2015. Retrieved: January 19, 2015. Website: http://www.whyisrael.org/2015/01/07/jerusalem-in-panic-mode-ahead-of-expected-snow-storm/