Reading Response, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries, The Promised Gas Masks, A Dog’s Life,“Jerusalem: Not the Mother of All Cities”

I really enjoyed these stories.  I think they were a nice contrast to the usual history we have been reading.  I like that they were more personal, and we got to hear stories of individual people.

In "The Promised Gas Masks," one part that stuck out to me was when they were talking about the straight lines.  "They all have a fetish for making Palestinians stand in an orderly line.  They complicate our lives with all sorts of permits, make them unbearably chaotic, then insist we stand in straight lines" (89).  I wondered why the Israelis are so persistent about the straight lines.  For some reason this brought images of the Holocaust to my mind.  (Which might be because of Holocaust Remembrance Week here at OSU and Yom Ha'Shoah [Holocaust Remembrance Day] on May 1st).  The Germans would make the Jews line up every day, and the Jews had no choice but to obey.  Inadvertently the Jews have imposed this same kind of strict demeanor when dealing with their opposites, just like the Germans.

I thought of an analogy for this.  It reminded me of games of pretend that children play.  They imitate their teachers by playing school, imitate their doctors by pretending to be doctors, and imitate their parents by playing house.  Maybe what the Jews went through in the Holocaust is unintentionally and subconsciously being played out by people whose relatives survived the Holocaust.

I really enjoyed "A Dog's Life."  Animals are an aspect in the conflict that I have never even thought about.  The conflict is between people and history, and animals are neglected.  In fact, animals are completely separate from the situation.  The identity of animals is completely dependent on the owner.  I also never thought about sexism extending to animals.  Despite this, I found it extremely ironic and slightly sad that a dog was able to get a passport but its owner could not.

I also have never really thought of the idea of sexism extending to cities.  Sure, boats and cars can be given gender.  Occasionally a city can be given a gender.  I have never personally thought of Jerusalem as a female city.  However, I can sort of see a connection between the gender of Jerusalem and the way the female dog was treated in the last story.

In general I really found Suid Amiry's story interesting.

Questions for Galit Hasan-Rokem:

1.  Have you had the chance to teach any Palestinians in your time as a Professor?
2.  How do you arrange to meet with Palestinian women?  Do you go to Ramallah?
3.  As a scholar and a feminist, what is your view of a solution?