In the next few days, I will post several blogs compiled of postings from my students who were asked this week to reflect on what they learned from the trip to Israel (earlier posts on our trip can be found on the blog starting here).  I’ll start tonight with  third-year student Katie Bricco’s overall take on the trip and understanding of the “other”:

We had the opportunity to meet some extremely bright and influential people in the Israel-Palestinian debate.  When I think back to the speakers we heard from, my mind turns to the three Arab men that we met.  [Ed. note–We met with Justice Joubron of the Israeli Supreme Court, Ali from the Parent’s Circle, and Youssef Jabareen from the Arab Center for Law & Policy.]  Many of the Israelis (Jews) that we met were committed to the concept of peace and, likewise, were very open minded and tried to present fair assessments of how the conflict affects everyone involved.  I felt that I got a very good sense of the conflict from the Israeli perspective, but we often got the Palestinian and Arab Israeli perspective through the lens of an Israeli Jew.  There was something about hearing these concerns from people within the affected community that made me want to pay attention.  For me, understanding the human rights concerns that the Arab population in Israel faces  helps me to understand a facet of war that I have never been able to relate to.

Essentially, Israeli (Jews) are concerned about safety.

Today is Human Rights Day, a United Nations celebration that marks the date, December 10, 1948, when the General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  The current High Commissioner for Human Rights in the United Nations, Navi Pillay, gave a speech at a special event in Geneva to mark the day.  One of her themes was that “criticism is not a crime,” and she advocated for governments “to release all those people who have been detained for peacefully exercising their fundamental freedoms to defend democratic principles and human rights.”  She also called for recognition of human rights defenders, not only those whose names have become famous everywhere but also the  “hundreds of thousands of largely unsung heroes, known collectively as human rights defenders.”

One useful human rights resource is the website of the Human Rights Education Association, an international initiative that serves governmental, inter-governmental, and non-governmental organizations, as well as individuals, who are interested in learning more about human rights.  There are distance learning materials for adults as well as various curriculum resources for educators who want to develop educational materials for children.