2021.6.3

     In today's class, we focused on media that is telling the truth about what is going on between Israel and Palestine. Looking back at all the classes we had been taking, most of the videos and readings we concentrated on were strongly biased to one country's side. On the other hand, the journalist, John Pilger is really equal and neutral as possible. He is not religious or too political and living in Australia which is far away from the place that the incident is taking place. Even if he has a bias, it's for truth and peace. Today, we watched a documentary made by John, "Palestine is still the issue". We used a video-sharing platform that only people that actually made it can upload called "Vimeo".

     The movie included shocking facts that I never used to know. Firstly, if Palestinians didn't have their ID, they can not go through the gate which might be closed anytime. Sometimes, children or mothers are stuck by the gate after going to school or the supermarket. It must be really scary to live under that kind of circumstance that you are just powerless and not knowing how things would turn out. Secondly, the scene of the interview toward the father who lost his daughter to terrorism made me think deeply about the incident once again. Honestly, I used to think that people who commit suicidal terrorism is crazy people that underestimate people's life for their god without knowing their backgrounds. I really respected the father for considering why it happened instead of simply blaming the woman who is responsible for the girl's death. However, at the same time, I noticed that Palestinians are experiencing the loss of children's lives in their daily life. A Palestinian woman in the documentary talked about how she lost her baby because she was unable to go through the gate and head to the hospital.

     To conclude, "Palestine is still the issue" made few changes in how I think about the conflict between two countries. Of course, it is impossible for me to understand what Palestinian people are feeling as I am an Atheist that lives in Japan. However, I can still imagine how it feels to live without knowing what kind of danger will occur to their family, and how cornered people were to even commit suicidal terrorism. 25 years after the first version, nothing had actually changed.