Gate of the Sun was not my favorite book we read so far in this class. At first i found it confusing and hard to understand the narrative. Once I got used to that I began to like it a little better, until i started to feel like it was becoming repetitive. However, I did get something out of it.
I liked the perspective that is showed on the Arab- Israel conflict. Although it was fiction, i felt that it captured the activities and the situations in the camps well enough to think of it as a true story. in my paper on it, i focused on the Palestinian resistance movement group called Fatah in which Yunes belonged to. I thought it interesting how he was able to recruit people for this group, gain support and still travel across the border to see his wife and raise a child in his life time. these were enormous accomplishments for a refugee and he was viewed as a hero.
Life in these camps was depicted exactly how it is in Cleveland and exactly how we have discussed it in class. The novel explains how these camps were meant to be temporary but the longer the refugees lived there, the more permanent they became. it was depicted as people fleeing their homes, leaving whatever they were doing behind and going wherever they could to survive. It is a sad thing to think about. These Palestinian refugees were stranded in these countries with no real home since they were driven out of theirs and now as the books showed other people lived in their homes. Israeli inhabitants replaced them in their own homes. even in one case where an Israeli woman living in a Palestinians old home had so much in common with her, it was almost her parallel, yet she was Israeli and therefore the enemy. Cleveland explains how these Palestinians weren't even granted any type of secure citizenship in the countries they were living in as refugees.
the novel tells a powerful story, i just found it hard to get into or at least stay into. the dialogue was hard to understand and at times it got very depressing. i feel like everything we have discussed or read about this conflict is depressing and books like these make it hard not to take a Palestinian stance, despite what the media shows in America in favor of Israel.
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I enjoyed reading your comment on the book. i fully understand your point and share the same view. It saddens me to learn about the strife of the Palestinian refugees living in these camps. Besides for Jordan, Palestinians are denied citizenship in other countries. They are seen only as refugees with a lost home. However it is incredible that there is still hope for peace and a creation of a Palestine states in our future. I just hope that it comes sooner rather than later because the Palestinians do not deserve this ongoing strife since 1948.
ReplyDeleteI also find it unfortunate that Palestinians are denied citizenship into other Arab countries. I also find it strange since the rise of Arab nationalism where all Arab countries were thought to be united by a common history, culture, and language. I guess since there are so many refugees it is hard to grant them all citizenship although Lebanon according to the books seems to make the most effort.
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