Differing views of Homelands

Questions for Ms. Said:

1.        Over your twenty years of work, how have your views over the conflict in Jerusalem changed?

2.       In one of the interviews we watched, Mr. Barenboim said he would like to have more performances in the West Bank and other places enduring the conflict.  Have there been any more performances in these areas or is there still an effort to try and make this possible?

Response to Readings:

I found “Homeland Redefined: Spaces of National Belonging” to be very interesting and have a great understanding   of how this land means much more to establishing their “collective identity”.  Both groups are attached to this land because it has taken on a powerful meaning of their identity.  I found this a very interesting contrast when in “Parallels and Paradoxes” Mr. Said and Mr. Barenboim talk about where they feel at home.  They feel at home when they are able to play music.  It does not depend on the land they are standing; rather, it depends on the feelings they get when they produce music.  “The sense of identity is a set of currents, flowing currents, rather than a fixed place or a stable set of objects” (5).  I find this an interesting idea, and I have been questioning myself on how much I agree with this statement.  Both of these men admit to not holding special memories to specific objects.  They do not keep memorabilia or many photos for nostalgic purposes.  I am very different in this sense because I do keep little mementos of important happenings in my life.  When I get these objects out, it takes me back to that specific place in time.  I also know, when I go home and visit my family, I feel at home more than I do at my apartment in Columbus.  So when I first read Barenboim’s argument that “home” is not a specific place, I disagreed.  However, then I began to think why my hometown home gave me that feeling.  It is not because of the land my house is on, but it is because it brings me back to the feelings I had when I had a steady home base.  Since college, between dorms, apartments, internships, and coops, I have not stayed in the same area for more than a couple months so when I go home, I get the feeling of a steady home base and that it is comforting to me.  After thinking of it in these terms, I realize that Said and Barenboim to have a point when they say identity is flowing currents. 

Another point that becomes apparent in Dabdoub’s article is the Palestinians and the Israeli have an “Us versus Them” mentality that is enforced in the children’s education.  “Palestinian children learn…they have common struggles against a common enemy…the Jews” (Nabdoub 18) and similarly, “Israel teaches its children that they are a part of a primordial national community…[and] that in building that state, they encountered an unpredictable and irrational enemy, the Arabs…” (Nabdoub 13).  This is what I believe is the underlying problem to the conflict.  The people of this land think in an “us versus them” state of mind where a victory to one is seen as a defeat to the other.  Dialogue can only go so far when people have this mentality.  The fact that this is taught at such a young age will only make the conflict last longer and it will be more intense.  I believe the par t of the solution to this conflict lies in changing this mentality, starting with the young citizens.