4/22/2007

"You are documenting the history and the emergence of a nation", Ala said to me. He also informed me that I am perhaps the first westerner to lecture in the Sharia Department here at An-Najah. I truly consider it to have been an honor and one of the most important presentations of my life. While I undoubtedly personally benefited from the experience, I hope that the students, both male and female, learned something from my efforts. If they learned anything, I hope it was that not all Americans are ignorant of the plight of the Palestinian people and that some of us do care.

It motivates me to give similar presentations in the United States so as to increase awareness and hopefully work towards a dramatic change in public opinion. Lucy, the director of the right to education campaign here at An-Najah, and a British citizen, attended my lecture and commented at the end that she has seen a change occur over her lifetime in the representation of Palestinians in the British media. I pray that such a change occurs in my country and that it won't take generations to do so.
My presentation was on the bias that exists in the American media, specifically in regards to the occupation of Palestine. When I was telling my roommate last night that I would be giving the lecture today he at first wished me luck, as many people had when I told them I would be presenting to students and faculty members of the Sharia Department, but then he told me how important it is to do such things. Many of these students may have never spoken to an American and by being here I have the amazing opportunity to present to them as what I am: an American citizen. My delivering of the presentation, as an American citizen, was powerful to many of the students, as I was told.

After the presentation Ala congratulated me and told me how it was very important for the students, especially Fatin, the student who lobbied for me to be permitted to give such a presentation. I was supposed to give it nearly three weeks ago, but unfortunately the faculty did not think it was appropriate for me to do so. Thankfully, through Fatin's efforts, they rescheduled the date. I understood how important it was to her both before and after the presentation. Before the presentation she was extremely nervous, probably more so than I was, and after the presentation she was extremely happy. It would have taken a great deal of effort to wipe the smile off her face, and to me, this was reason enough to have given the presentation. She walked off reciting one sentence to me: "Thank you very much!" That sentence and the smile on her face are two things I will never forget.

Ala compared Fatin's situation to the philosophy of Plato. When a man discovers how to escape from a cave he has the difficult decision of enjoying his freedom from the cave or returning to rescue his friends. Through the Zajel program Fatin has had the opportunity to interact with internationals like myself. "It's like she's entering another world", Ala explained to me. "Now she will go back to the cave and rescue the others". While I don't think my presentation was that groundbreaking, I was heartened by the words and hope that I had one tenth the effect he expressed to me.

In the presentation I focused on the bias in the American media through three case studies: The AP, a combined assessment of CBS, NBC, and ABC, and the NY Times. I provided statistical evidence, not gathered by me but by an organization named If Americans Knew, which shows how news agencies under report Palestinian deaths and over report Israeli deaths, giving the impression that the Israelis are the ones suffering more casualties. Recently the Palestinian Information Minister, Mustafa Barghouthi, cited a poll of Americans which showed that the majority of Americans believe that Palestine is occupying Israel. This is a shameful result of the statistics which I presented.

The most important part of my presentation focused on the lack of intercultural dialogue between Americans and Palestinians. Perhaps the most controversial part of the presentation was when I called upon the Palestinian people to negotiate such a dialogue, citing my pessimism that Americans would do such a thing. I hope I'm wrong. The presentation went well. The women sat in the back, with an awkward gap between the men sitting in the front. The question and answer portion was fruitful. The first question was from someone trying to explain to me that the problem is in America more than here. This gave me a chance to explain my agreement, but to elaborate, that the Palestinian people also have a responsibility to improve their tattered image abroad, whether it be based on facts or not. I enjoyed the experience and hope that the students and faculty members who were present benefited from it and that some of them will work in the future towards participating in such a dialogue. I also hope that I proved to some of them that generalizing cultures is dangerous, whether it be Americans generalizing Palestinians, or Palestinians generalizing Americans.

An American school was burned down in Gaza recently. Most American's would probably think the Palestinian government was behind the attack, or that they support such anti-American actions. This is obviously not the case. You can read the story, as well as the statements from the information minister, here: http://www.zajel.org/article_view.asp?newsID=8209&cat=1

Most of the businesses in Nablus are closed today. They decided not to open in solidarity against the murder of two members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade by Israeli soldiers last night. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=21390

PS. Mike, do you have a broom I can borrow? There's a big mess at Fenway park...