1-4

After I finished reading the first 4 chapters I realized that all the religious groups; Judism, Islam amd Christianity, they are all to blame for all the ups and downs of the city. From the readings it seems to me that the discussion of what is "holy or sacred" is a big reason for the fighting. All 3 believe the city is scared to them but do not respect the other groups beliefs. This reminded of the story Robyn told us in class about when she was in Jerusalem and went to visit the place where the last supper was held, and the two tour guides didnt want the other group in the room. That is a perfect example of people thinking that the cite is more holy or sacred to them than it is to another group.

Journal week 1

Since I've been in college I have taken classes at the Marion and Delaware branches of OSU and i have had classes of all sizes, 700 to 20 but I have never had a class that regularly video chats with another university in another state. When I first walked into class i was surpised to see how small it was and to see some people on tv that were watching us. But when the purpose of the class and the project was explained to me I thought it was a really good idea to get so many different opinions on the topic. I think having the class discussion based instead of reading the book and learning facts makes students feel more comfortable asking questions in a group. Even though the topic of this class can be controversal for a lot of people its cool to see people from different perspectives relating and agreeing on a lot of things we talked about.

History of Jerusalem

The articles we were supposed to read for this week were, Jersualem then and now, Jerusalem the holy city through the ages and The history of Jerusalem. From the article "The history of Jerusalem" I thought it was interesting when the writer compared history to belief. To me his definition of history reminded me of the discussion we had in class, I think history is something that needs to be proven if you are trying to make other people believe what you are saying. However, the history that is in the holy books for the three religions doesnt need to be proven because I think most people who were raised to believe the books dont question whether the stories are real or not and I dont think it matters to them.

Also, the articles talked about the political importance of Jerusalem and that made me think of wars, for example how could countries benifit from the positioning of the country and how could they benifit from being allies. I believe the more powerful countries have taken advantage of this civil war going in Israel or Palestine by trying to pick a side to support because they think if the side they support wins then they will be able to use the land for other things.

I was surprised to find out just how many different groups of people claimed control of the country and that helps me understand why so many people feel some sort of attachment to it. Something that I want to know more about is the other buildings and other things going on in Israel that dont have any connections to religion, like is there anything going on there that isnt influenced by the multiple religions?

jan 9 2013

We were assigned to read four articles; "Researching East Jerusalem", "Representing Jerusalem", "Dialogue as Ethical Conduct: The Folk Festival That Was Not", Living Jerusalem: Cultures and Communities in Conflict". To be honest I only read the first two articles because they were the shortest but they were really interesting. I am Palestinian and I would have liked to see the festival with the sides of Jerusalem because I am not as familiar with is as I should be. The way Suad Amiry described the city reminded me of how America is, lots of religions, different people practicing what they believe in.

Also, I believe they could not have correctly depicted the city without bringing the conflict to the festival. I think it would be necessary to bring soliders to show how the freedoms of Palestinians are taken away. Having Jerusalem portrayed as two separate cities that do not interact could cause some problems. The festival council had to have other reasons to not have the project in the festival probably to avoid any uncomfortable situations because this is such a sensitive issue.

about me

Hi everyone my name is Reyad Rasul. I am a sophomore at OSU, I am studying nutrition and I hope to be a physical therapist. I am from Hilliard, Ohio.