{"id":13293,"date":"2011-04-19T09:30:49","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T14:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=13293"},"modified":"2011-04-19T09:30:49","modified_gmt":"2011-04-19T14:30:49","slug":"israel-reflections%e2%80%93closing-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/04\/israel-reflections%e2%80%93closing-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Reflections\u2013Closing Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

This will be the last post regarding the trip from Israel (at least for now!) and I wanted to close with some of the students\u2019 last reflections and humorous comments about the trip:<\/em><\/p>\n

Most people said I was a little crazy for heading to Israel in my first trip out of the country but what more could I ask for? \u00a0We went to meetings and museums, saw Roman ruins, and spent time at the beach.\u00a0 I was feeling pretty good about my knowledge of the region both from my own studies and from the preparation I had from the first few weeks of class.\u00a0 After patting myself on the back on the way over, almost as soon as we landed I realized what a neat little box I had placed around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\u00a0 Needless to say, the conflict is anything but.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Listening to Ir Amin speak on the second day I learned that the conflict is complicated.\u00a0 I knew my mind was being opened when I heard Joe Perlov say \u201cI hate the fence, thank God for the fence<\/a>,\u201d and I actually understood it.\u00a0 At the\u00a0Parent\u2019s Circle <\/a>meeting, Robi taught us that the conflict is deteriorating the moral character of Israel and the proof is in the rising levels of drunk driving and domestic violence. The man at the Arab Center for Policy talked about the Israeli-Arabs who have so many domestic and discrimination issues overshadowed by the conflict.\u00a0 Even the extremely petite women who took us on our tour of Haifa Law School spoke about their experiences in the IDF.\u00a0 What I thought I knew turned out to be the smallest sliver of reality; it affects so many people in so many ways.\u00a0 This conflict consumed almost every conversation and meeting we had in Israel, but no one seems to know how to end it.\u00a0 The one thing everyone did agree on was that a solution is necessary and the sooner the better.\u00a0 The trip gave me an entirely new perspective on what is happening in that part of the world, and although completely exhausting, it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.<\/p>\n

For me, the best moment was a moment of reflection in the executive suite of the InterContinental Hotel toward the end of the trip when we were unexpectedly given extra time to reflect on the absolutely insane but phenomenal few preceding days. [ed. note–this was when our flight was cancelled and the airline put us up at the InterContinental.]\u00a0 Not only had the entire trip in general been an exhilarating experience, but it had also given to me one of the things I had been seeking since my matriculation into law school, a sense of group unity and reaffirmed self identity.\u00a0 I have to admit, at first I was quite scared about what I would find when we landed in Israel and simply going was a conquering of my fear of the unknown.\u00a0 However, I am exceedingly happy that I decided to follow through because it was through this experience that I was able to realize one of the things that I had been seeking since I started law school, namely that sense of camaraderie or unity with a group of people in the law school.\u00a0 Finally finding one such experience after three years of searching made me breathe a sigh of relief.\u00a0 In exploring Israel\u2019s continuing journey toward discovering its own identity and place in the world, I have been able to discover some of my own identity.\u00a0 I experienced many of the incredibly complex facets that make up the Israeli culture, I shared many exciting \u201cfirsts\u201d with likeminded individuals, and I was allowed to experience the difficult complexities that make up some of Israel\u2019s most pressing issues.\u00a0 I saw people at their best \u2026 and I saw people at their worst.\u00a0 It was being able to observe and partake in this entire gamut of emotion that made this a truly once in a lifetime experience.<\/p>\n

And for one of the funniest memories from one of the students: \u201cWhen we were walking the Via Dolorosa a man came up to me and gave me his pizzeria\u2019s business card and assured me that this was where Jesus ate pizza!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Cross posted at Indisputably.<\/div>\n

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This will be the last post regarding the trip from Israel (at least for now!) and I wanted to close with some of the students\u2019 last reflections and humorous comments about the trip: Most people said I was a little crazy for heading to Israel in my first trip out of the country but what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-law","category-marquette-law-school","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}