Assignment
Mission 4: Martyrs
Brief: You have now played the fourth mission in Global Conflicts: Palestine, and are expected to discuss and reflect on the experiences. Below you will first find questions related to the game and then questions of a more general nature. Finally, you can write an article drawing on the game experience and the this website.
To answer the questions in this worksheet use your experiences from the game and refer to the material on this website.
1. Game review:
a). Please provide a short factual resume of the mission.
b). Please explain the motivations, actions and perception of the key people you ran into (one line each).
Nabil:
Affan al-Assar:
Roi:
Yaphet:
Leah:
Hushna:
Mohammad:
c). Please give your own explanation of what happened in the game mission.
2. Beyond the game
You may have a hard time answering the questions below if you were a sloppy and superficial journalist. Luckily, you can either go back and play the game or use some of the material on the website /.
a). What implications do the martyrs have for the Israeli-Palestinian relations? Consider both martyrs in general, and more specifically the ones martyred by suicide bombs.
b). How do the Israelis perceive martyrs and suicide bombs? What do they stress when talking about martyrs? Why does Israel find suicide bombs unacceptable, and the concept of martyrs unhealthy? How do history, culture, religion and society color this perception?
c). How do Palestinians perceive the martyrs and suicide bombs? How does the Palestinian society treat them? How do history, culture, religion and society color this perception? What role does the media play?
d). How would you criticize the role martyrs and suicide bombs play in the Palestinian society? How would you criticize the general Israeli perception of martyrs and suicide bombs?
e). Examine the statistics about victims of the conflict on the website. What do they tell you? What is the implicit message and agenda of the different statistics?
f). Choose at least three sources from the theme material or video section that have their different perspectives on suicide bombs. Discuss the background for the accounts and underlying agendas of the sources.
(For example: Reem martyr video, Music video about martyrs & Madi Friday Sermon).
g). How would you argue that the act of suicide bombing is an altruistic action. What arguments would the Palestinians use?
3). Write a better story
In the game you have a limited amount of time for writing and researching the story with access to only a few sources. Now you have a chance to pursue an even better researched story by using sources on our website and from other places. In general there are three different types of stories you can choose from: news story, feature story & opinion story.
Use one of the three templates to help you make the best story. Remember you can use quotes, pictures and sources from this website.
Choose between the following subjects from the game world:
a). Palestine Today: Today is interested in stories about martyrs and Palestinians who get killed fighting the injustice of the Israeli occupation. What goes on inside the heads of these people and what are their motivations? How are their sacrifices helping the Palestinian people?
b). Global News: is keen on getting stories that are more focused on the costs on both sides? Why do some people choose to detonate themselves and what happens to Israelis that experience these things? What are the human costs?
c). The Israeli Post: is interested in hearing stories about the impact that suicide bombers have on life in Israel. They want stories about victims, about survival, about the impact that the constant fear of attacks has on the lives of ordinary citizens.