For Tuesday: Toha, “Unsafe Passage” (149-163)

 

For Tuesday: Toha, “Unsafe Passage” (149-163)

NOTE: We only have one more essay to read after this one, so be sure to catch up on your questions—and do these ones—so you don’t lose points on your Reading Responses grade (which is 30% of your final grade).

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Many people—and especially families—would want to flee an area like Gaza that has become a war zone. Ultimately, that’s what the author and his family try to do. But what keeps him, and many other people in Gaza, from abandoning the city? In other words, what makes it difficult to leave, both practically and personally?

Q2: In our last essay, the mother of a slain teenager complained that “The people that killed him reduced him to one thing and one thing only” (36). How does this essay show the same kind of racial stereotyping between one group and another? How is the author personally affected by this?

Q3: What ultimately saves the author from his incarceration and torture? Is he merely found innocent of his alleged crimes, or is it some other X factor that frees him? Why not everyone arrested in Gaza be able to count on the same kind of support?

Q4: How does this essay try to humanize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has long been a headline in the news, but which many Americans don’t really understand? Especially given that many people associate Palestinians with Hamas, terrorism, or even anti-Semitism?