Graffiti on the Walls/ Homeland Redefined

As I look back on my trip to Israel, I don't remember seeing graffiti on the walls. Graffiti is a great way to spread a message that would reach millions of people every day. However living in a world full of graffiti would be scary and frightening. Riding my bike with rockets painted on the building behind me or slurs that are attacking one side of the conflict would really impact my life and views as a child.This makes sense though when you talk to Israeli and Palestinian students. The hostile environment that they grew up in really has effected the way that they view the conflict and the way that they view each other.

 Both the negative and positive graffiti both act as propaganda- "We weep for Palestine", "Voices from the Ghetto", "I am not a terrorist." All of these words graffitied on the walls are simple sentences, yet they are so powerful. Reading things like this when ever you pass a building, a wall, a dumpster, will cause this conflict to always be inside your head. 

However, from the other point of view- the people did not want to like the wall, they wanted to hate the wall, so reading hurtful messages and looking at intense images remains a way for those to speak out against the wall in a non violent way, but to show their protest through words and images instead of acts. 

In Noura's article, the idea of homeland was addressed and explained from both the Palestinian perspective of a homeland and the Israeli perspective of a homeland. Although I have learned and studied a lot about zionism and what the Jewish people wanted out of a homeland, I have never learned the palestinian earn for a homeland or what they even consider a homeland. It seems as if someones "right", identity and nationalism have really gotten in the way of peace. Before this class I never really thought about the importances of home. Obviously, my home is where my family is and where I am the most comfortable, but now I am starting to realize that my home is more than just my house. My home is my community, my school, my actions in the community, the place I pray, the place I eat etc.