 Your new post is loading...
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
In the search for Middle East peace, the most fundamental problem is the problem of disbelief.
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
Watch this Jewish Voice for Peace 6 minute mini-primer about why Israelis and Palestinians are fighting..
This video from the Jewish Voice for Peace has a more politically motivated angle than most of the resources that I post on this site, but I feel that they do justice to both sides as well as the truth. In a simple way it lays out the roots of many of the problems in the region with historic and geographic perspectives.
Tags: Israel, Palestine, conflict, political, borders.
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
Israeli airstrikes began November 14, following months of Palestinian rocket fire into Israel.
"Monday, the top leader of Hamas dared Israel to launch a ground invasion of Gaza and dismissed diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire in the six-day-old conflict, as the Israeli military conducted a new wave of deadly airstrikes which included a second hit on a 15-story building that houses media outlets." This photo essay shows 34 powerful images that are emerging from this deadly conflict. If students need some background to understand who are the major players in this conflict, this glossary should be helpful.
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
TED Talks A clay cylinder covered in Akkadian cuneiform script, damaged and broken, the Cyrus Cylinder is a powerful symbol of religious tolerance and multi-culturalism. At first glance this TED Talk appears to be more about ancient history, archaeology and biblical studies that anything modern. Yet as Neil MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum continues his discussion of the Cyrus Cylinder (A clay cylinder covered in Akkadian cuneiform script), it becomes clear that this historical artifact is vital in understanding how modern states conceive of their heritage, cultural legacy and role within the Middle East today (such as Israel, Iraq, Iran and even the U.K.). As such the Cyrus Cylinder is a powerful symbol of religious tolerance and multi-culturalism and plays a role in shaping Middle Eastern cultural and political institutions.
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
This book is a compilation of letters exchanged between two 18-year-old girls who live in Jerusalem: one Israeli and the other Palestinian. Having met through a student exchange program, they openly discuss their frustrations with the political situation of 2002, and over time come to appreciate the others cultural and political viewpoints. This is a great cross-cultural interaction as the girls show their misconceptions of the other group, but through open dialogue come to an appreciation for other perspectives. This would be a good project to have student read the book and synthesize the cultural and political elements within them to reinforce the class content with a real-world example.
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
These three issues are deeply interconnected in many parts of the world and in this news report from Israel, ultra-Orthodox from the town of Beit Shemesh are seeking to enforce their vision of a religiously appropriated gendered partition of space. This particular news clip has caused a firestorm, and the Israeli PM has publicly states that gender segregation will not be tolerated. On Monday, as the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, "about 300 ultra-Orthodox men attacked police officers, hurling stones at the officers after they removed a sign ordering women not to walk past a synagogue in Beit Shemesh." Obviously they are not indicative of all Jews, but this raises many questions. Why do we see a rise in of religious extremism (a loaded word, but I'll listen to alternatives) in this era of globalization? Why is equality in where and how people can act in public such an important political freedom? Why is there such strong cultural reactions to diverse gender norms in public?
|
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
In early November 2012, three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized zone (DMZ) of the Golan Heights. The move by Syria is the first violation of the zone in 40 years and concerns countries of the region. Since then some of the Syrian rebels have also been reported operating in Golan Heights.
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
A new interactive tool allows you to decide how many Israeli settlers to annex and what constitutes a viable Palestinian state.
This article from the Atlantic is a great introduction to a mapping tool that puts the user at the virtual negotiation table. Peace talk proposals often center around the amount of land that Palestinians want and the Jewish settlements in the West Bank that the Israelis want as a part of the state of Israel. This interactive, titled Is Peace Possible?, allows the user to propose potential land swaps, see the demographic breakdown of West Bank settlements and videos to introduce users to on 4 major issues: borders, security, refugees and Jerusalem.
Tags: Israel, borders, Palestine, territoriality, political, mapping.
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
With a simple class hashtag (e.g.-#geog400ric) you can create a backchannel for student to collaborate outside the classroom walls.
|
Suggested by
Nic Hardisty
|
This map shows each verified incident of violence in Gaza and Israel since last week's assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed al-Jabari. Geospatial technologies combined with social media are changing how we learn about (and wage) wars.
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
The exodus from the Holy Land of Palestinian Christians could eventually leave holy cities like Jerusalem and Bethlehem without a local Christian population. Bob Simon reports. This 14 minute clip looks at the complex political and cultural geography of the Israel and Palestine. While often reduced to being a struggle between Israeli Jews and Palestinians Muslims, this missed simplification fails to tell the story of Palestinian Christians.
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
"The location of every identifiable place mentioned in the Bible." I understand that this may have limited applications for you in public classroom settings, however this is such a fantastic example of how to use geospatial technologies to recreate and understand historical geographies, I had to share. You can preview the data by book and chapter, download the numerous KMZ files to open in Google Earth, or preview them in Google Maps. Also, various overlays and geotagged photos are available on this impressive website.
|
|
Scooped by
Seth Dixon
|
A fight broke out at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem after rival groups of Orthodox and Armenian clerics clashed over the boundaries of their jurisdictions inside the church. This is a great video to show religious geography and how scale plays a key role in a patterns. Not only does the macro-religious geography of the Levant lead to politically contentious situations, but the micro-religious geography can also be problematic. This building itself has a curiously devided spatial pattern among Christian branches that demands tolerance, cooperation and searching for ways to share a place that many groups find holy...this could be seen as symbolic way to look at the whole area.
|
