Sunday, November 13, 2011

Evaluation

I feel that this class has done so much to open my eyes to the situation in Israel and inform me of the history and events that have created the Israel we know today. I also feel that the class has offered a myriad of differing and important personal perspectives on the issue with all the different video conferences. The only thing I would suggest is a more rigid structure. I understand that it is difficult to work around others' schedules for video conferences, and I understand that things come up, but I have had a little bit of difficulty keeping track of what I need to do when. I'm not sure if this is even possible, but that is my only suggestion for improvement. I still firmly believe that all the readings (especially the Armstrong book) are essential to this class, and I like the project OR paper idea rather than forcing one or the other. This is a well-structured class and I have learned a lot from it, but if at all possible, I would suggest a little bit of a more rigid class structure as far as when to do what readings and when to prepare for which speakers.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

B'Tselem

Every good human rights activist knows that information is the key to bringing about change. After all, without information or education on an issue, no one even knows that change is needed. B'Tselem is a great organization because of this. B'Tselem has taken it upon themselves to educate the United States about the situation of human rights in Israel because of the integral role that U.S. foreign policy plays in Israeli policies; educating the West in order to bring about change in the Middle East. I also completely agree with their ideas that human rights are universal and think it is very important that they report human rights violations from the Occupied Territories and Israel itself. In the "About Us" section of B'Tselem's website, they state: "All Israelis and Palestinians have equal rights to live in dignity and safety, and Israeli and Palestinian authorities must respect these rights" even though the majority of their focus is on Israeli security forces. I also find it very important that they not only report about these human rights violations, but interact with the Israeli authorities as well, collecting statements and reports from them regarding their own reports. I am taking a journalism class right now and one of the most important points of journalism is that it is designed to be a sort of check to the government's power. B'Tselem focuses on informing the public about their government's human rights violations in order to evoke responses and prevent the government from being able to have unlimited power. Information is also a kick start to action, from the information people learn about these issues, they can be moved and decide to take their own actions to stop the policies and human rights violations that are being enacted by their government.

Question: What role do you feel like information plays in bringing about change in Israel?