Questions for our Afghan peers

1. How has the presence of the US military in your country affected you/your friends/your family, and what would you change about the US occupation if you could?

2. What are the main problems that you face on an everyday basis in Afghanistan? What are some of the first steps that you would take to improve these conditions?

Questions for our Afghan Peers

1. As Afghans what are your connections to Jerusalem? Additionally are there places in Afghanistan that are of equal or of similar importance to you?
2. What stereotypes do outsiders cast upon Afghanistan and its people? How can you combat those stereotypes?

Questions for Afghan Students

1) How has an American military presence in Afghanistan affected your everyday life?

2) I think the general "Western" perception of Afghanistan isn't that great. If you could share some things about your country/culture that combat that notion, what would they be?

Questions for Students

1. What is one thing you wish the western world took the time to understand about your culture?
2. What is one of your favorite traditions rooted in the culture of Afghanistan?
3. How has the occupation shaped your life? Has it? 

Questions for Speakers

1. What are the most important challenges you see facing your country in the next 20 years?
2.  How did the American occupation of Afghanistan affect your life?
3. What do you hope to do in the future?
4. What are some common misconceptions about Afghanistan, and how would you address them?

Questions for Afghan Students

1. In what ways do you feel that you have learned about life outside of Afghanistan through musical studies?

2. For any females in the class, what is every day life like as a woman in Afghanistan? (Sorry I know this is broad, but I really wanted to ask!)

Two Events at the Mershon Center

There are two upcoming events at the Mershon Center that I thought you might be interested in attending.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Business for Peace Collaborative

"USIP Public Education for Peacebuilding Support Program"

4:30 p.m., 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

WOSU's Ann Fisher will lead a discussion on how economic development and business affects peace, and how peace building and end of conflicts impact regional development, rule of law, and economic growth. Organized by Mershon affiliates Esther Gottlieband John Carlarne, the panel will be introduced by David Manderscheid, executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and include Patrice McMahon, associate professor of political science at University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Christopher Gelpi, Chair of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at the Mershon Center; Yoram Haftel, associate professor of international relations at Hebrew University in Jerusalem; andMason Foster Ye, an undergraduate business scholar at Ohio State. This event is underwritten by the U.S. Institute of Peace Public Education for Peacebuilding Support Initiative.  Read more and register at go.osu.edu/businesspeace

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Eitan Alimi

"The Relational Context of Radicalization: The Case of Jewish Settler Contention before and after the Gaza Pullout"

Noon, 120 Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave.

Eitan Alimi is senior lecturer in political sociology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His book Israeli Politics and the First Palestinian Intifada (Routledge, 2007) was awarded the 2008 best English book on Israeli Politics by the Israeli Political Science Association. A book on radicalization and de-radicalization in the case of the Jewish settler movement has recently come out (Resling, 2013), and a co-authored book on processes of radicalization in comparative perspective is under contract with Oxford University Press. He will discuss why some social movements experience radicalization while others do not, compairing of two episodes of Jewish settler contention. Read more at go.osu.edu/alimie

Questions

1. Do you believe it's possible to classify or order the issues faced by Israel, Palestine, and both countries?

2. If so, what comes first? Last? In the middle?

Questions for Galit Hasan-Rokem

1. Can reminding the world, somehow, that Jerusalem is a city where people live and work and go to school help to disassociate it with holiness and protection/possession and therefore create the space in peoples' minds to conceptualize Jerusalem as a place that cannot/should not be dominated and possessed by one "correct" group of people but rather enjoyed by all?
2. Which is more important to liberate first from the desire to control and possess; women or land? Why?

Questions for Galit Hasan-Rokem

1. We read a piece on the struggles that Palestinian women have in Israel. Having worked with both Palestinian and Israeli women on feminist issues, what are the different struggles that you see both groups dealing with?

2. Do you think the struggles that Palestinian women have in Israel are a result of their gender, their ethnicity, or both?

Questions for Galit Hasan-Rokem

1. Has the mission of the Living Jerusalem project evolved? If so how has it changed over time and what is it's mission today?
2. What language can we begin to associated or use for Jerusalem to help people understand its not only a religious center, but a center of everyday life as well?

Questions for Galit Hasan-Rokem

1. Are feminist ideologies taught in schools prior to university? How extensive is the focus on feminist discourse? 
2. Do you find the diversity of Jerusalem to be more or less conducive to the development of feminist dialogue? Or, do you feel that conflict and tension between various factions diminishes the role of feminist dialogue in daily conversation and educational research?

Questions for Galit Hasan-Rokem

1) Do you see women's rights movements and struggles as comparable to those of the LGBTQ community? Do you see overlap between the two?

2) Do you think issues/conflicts based on race, religion, etc. must be "solved" before women's rights will be addressed? Are they on separate tiers so to speak?

Questions for Galit Hasan-Rokem

1) Can you tell us more about Jerusalem Link and your involvement in the project?
2) Why did you decide to become involved in the peace and feminist movements in Israel?

Suad Amiry at TEDxRamallah

Here's a clip from her TEDxRamallah talk--it includes the story of Nura the puppy.

Questions for Ahmed

1. Do you see the impacts of the conflict in your every day life?

2. How do you feel about the US support of Israel and involvement in negotiations? How do Palestinians seem to feel in general about this?

Questions

1. How has the conflict affected your schooling and the opportunities, both directly and indirectly?
2. What is your favorite thing about Jerusalem, tangible or otherwise?

Questions for 3/4/2014

1. What do you wish Israeli's new about Palestinians that you often feel gets lost in the media and negotiations?
2. Do you think America is the right country to be leading the push for negotiations? Why yes or why no?

Questions for Ahmed

1. What are some important factors in this conflict that Westerners (Americans in particular) just do not understand?

2. How does the conflict affect your personal, everyday life?

Questions for Ahmed

1) As a Palestinian student living and experiencing Jerusalem (arguably the heart of the conflict) first-hand, what do you see as the most plausible resolution to the conflict? Two-state solution? Assimilation of one side into the other? 

2) Along the same lines (and speaking optimistically of course) if the occupation were to end tomorrow, what would the scene in Jerusalem look like?

Questions for Ahmed

1) How has the Occupation affected your schooling?
2) What are some of the issues facing the education systems in Israel/Palestine?
3) Do you think Israeli and Palestinian school curricula demonize the "other"?

Questions for Ahmed

1. Do you have any favorite school traditions? 
2. What do you feel your teachers and administrators focus on the most in regards to student education? 
3. How is higher education (university, vocational training) viewed by different communities?