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2021/6/3

  Today we watched the documentary, Palestine is Still the Issue made by John Pilger. But before that Mr. Paterson showed us a short video of Palestinians denied permission to go home to their neighborhood. The fences were not opened by the Israeli soldiers so the students had to wait there, hoping that the soldiers would change their minds. Then we talked in groups about how we would feel if Japan was controlled by another country. We talked about the struggles we might face and the stress we would feel daily. One of us said that she might not leave the house because there are risks of not getting back and even death. After this conversation, we watched Palestine is Still the Issue. John Pilger first made this documentary in 1977 but 25 years later, in 2002, he made a new version but not a lot has changed since then. 

  The documentary showed many shocking videos and it made me want to close my eyes. However, I thought that we shouldn't look away from reality and face the truth so I tried my best to not close my eyes in violent scenes. We occasionally stopped the video to talk with each other about what we thought and felt. Explaining what we thought and felt to people and not just watching it silently made my understanding deepen because I had to put ideas into words. For example, when we saw what was done to the Culture Ministry, we talked about the children who went there for comfort and that soldiers shouldn't have children involved in these things. Vandalizing children's paintings does nothing to solve the problem. 

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