Reading Response 1: Initial Impressions

I did not expect Suad Amiry's article "Researching East Jerusalem" to portray so realistically the cultural and political problems that Palestinians were facing (and still do face) on a daily basis. Even despite her need to communicate with various East Jerusalem inhabitants for her research, she was oftentimes unable to arrange meetings or reach certain areas due to all the chaos and unpredictable circumstances. Yet, I found her perseverance and dedication to the project quite inspiring. It's such a shame that the project was never able to take place because I am sure it would have inspired some great dialogues and new ideas. In the interview with Suad Amiry, she stresses the numerous cultural complexities that would have been difficult to convey at the festival in Washington. For example, how could they realistically portray the military scene and the separation barrier so that the festival would be representative of life in Jerusalem? Obviously, it's impossible to create a comprehensive imitation of society in another country, especially one as complicated as Jerusalem, so I wonder how effective the festival would have actually been. Yet, even if the reinterpretations were not dead on, it still would have been a huge leap forward to shed so much public light on the religious and cultural issues, as well as bringing together such a large variety of people for a common cause.

In the article "Dialogue as Ethical Conduct: The Folk Festival That Was Not," I noticed that the author seemed to portray the Palestinian researchers and the Israeli researchers in competition to and separate from one another, instead of working together on the same festival for the mutual desire to increase cross-cultural dialogue. Were they actually not working with one another, or did the author perhaps intend for this often automatic cultural separation to carry over into his/her writing?

I surprised but pleased that from the beginning of Dr. Horowitz's paper, she mentioned "the American partner whose role complicates the already existing asymmetry and ambiguity" of Jerusalem. I have found that in talking to others about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they are usually unaware of the major role that the United States has played and continues to play, and therefore I think it's an extremely important part of the conflict that is oftentimes ignored or left out. I also found this sentence to be quite intriguing: "A Jerusalem festival program would require public acknowledgment of the political, cultural, and religious controversies that characterize the city and underlie the traditional practitioners who create there." ...Perhaps this is one of the reasons for which the festival was never carried out.