final project update

After considering a couple of different ideas for my final project I decided to go for the interviews. I feel that one of my initial interests fr this semester was to challenge my perspective about the Palestinian -Israeli conflict. I wanted to push myself and see where are the places where I get triggered, what is the stuff that is hard for me to talk about and where do I have a hard time listening? I think that a great place to start is through interviewing and listening to different people who are involved with the conflict.
My main objective is to get a bigger picture about this conflict- how did it start, who is involved and how/why, where is it going and what is a rational solution.
I want to do this through listening to different opinions and stories about the conflict from varied people.

One important point:
While conducting my research I began to notice a very interesting and challenging aspect of dealing with this conflict. As I started thinking about this conflict and exposing myself to the reality of the occupation and the history of how Israel was founded I had to start asking myself questions about my roll as an oppressor. Just dealing with oppressor 'stuff'/oppressive pattern is not easy by itself but I found it even trickier because of the way antisemitism affects Jews and how we have internalized it. What I mean by that is 1. Anti Jewish oppression and anti-Israel sentiment exists in the world yet many many times it is completely ignored! It is sometimes not mentioned even in the most progressive human rights gatherings. This fact makes it hard for people in Israel and for Jewish people in general to understand their own situation and to also be able to think well of the Palestinians.
2. As far as I can tell Jews in Israel are both in the roll of the oppressor and the roll of the oppressed. but the way that they are oppressed is hidden and ignored.
There is much more I want to understand and think about in this matter, but the point right now that I am shooting to figure out is how can we/I work on my oppressor stuff while not putting the Israeli's down beating ourselves up...more to come on this matter!

So far I have interviewed three people from the Boulder/Denver community!
The interviews where 2 hour long each and went very well. Each one had a completely different feel and shed light on different subjects. I am really excited to listen to them again and write my final paper!

I am also considering conducting one more interview that I think will be very important for my ability to work with this subject. This interview I want to do with one of the leaders of Jewish people in Co counseling. I think this will help me get a better picture of this whole oppressor/oppressed stuff.