To Die In Jerusalem

The first part of this movie left me fairly shocked.  The fact that a young girl could walk into a supermarket and be a suicide bomber is truly shocking.  Everytime I think of suicide bombers I only think that men do it.   So that was definitely the first shocker for me.

What is very interesting about this conflict, when you truly look at it from an outside perspective you cannot see who is right and who is wrong.  Because we are Americans, we immediately sympathize with Rachel's family.  We immediately want to paint "Ayat" as a terrorist, but when you see it from the Palestinian side, you see that she is being honored as a martyr, or a hero.  Would we feel the same as the Palestinians if one of us, an American went into a supermarket and killed somebody who we felt was the "bad guy?"  I would have to say that maybe we would praise that person as well.  That seems to be the center of the conflict, both sides see each other as "evil" and there will be no stopping the conflict until that issue somehow can get solved.  

It was also amazing to see that both girls looked so similar to each other.  It seemed as almost a sign that it's the same people killing each other over and over, all because of this conflict that exists between two groups who think each other is "evil." 

This documentary film does a tremendous job of showing both sides of this conflict and does a great job showing the emotions that are present on both sides.  When both sides think that they are not wrong in what they are doing, how can there be a peace? 

I am really not sure what I would do if it was my daughter who did what they did.  If was on the Isreali side, I would be so angry and hurt, but I strongly feel there would be a part of me that would almost understand why it happened.  I would see that we are wrong for putting our troops in someone else's land.  I wouldn't condone the killing, but I feel there would be a part of me, even if it was a small part, that would understand what was going on here.