blog 3: Difficulty

A: My picture portrays the struggle of Palestinians in achieving their simple natural rights: Liberty and freedom. Moreover, the apartheid wall is a separation barrier that prevents the Palestinians from entering their own land and deprives them from exploiting their resources. Coercion, manipulation, and exploitation are qualities that was encapsulated in a wall built by tyrants and sovereign to abuse the Palestinian’s basic natural right of freedom.

B: The text "The Social Contract” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, articulates in liberal attitude to reflect mutually beneficial relationship between an individual and the decision makers in the society. Moreover, the text functions to reflect ideas about freedom, civil and human rights. Through the following quote: “the civil state produces a very remarkable change in man: the role that instinct used to play in his conduct is now taken over by a sense of justice” (Rousseau 114), one can realize that its better for an individual to adopts a life in a civil society rather than nature meaning under the principles of the social contract.

C: For Palestinians, being part of the civil society has obliterated our basic natural right of living with an absolute freedom in our own country. Furthermore, Arab citizens have never been treated with justice and the state or the decision makers didn’t grant their political rights fairly. Opposing Rousseau argument, the relationship of the individual with the commanders has miserably failed. Justifying my point through the following quote, “in the civil state he is deprived of many advantages that he got from nature, but he gets enormous benefits in return” (Rousseau 114), what enormous benefits we got in return, humiliation? We are deprived from visiting our own land, and living a basic free life. In other words, I agree with Rousseau in this quote to some extent. I agree that the civil state the Palestinians are currently living in has deprived us of many advantages but no benefits in return. It’s basically a loss of our natural rights. Decision-makers engender inequality by building the apartheid wall for the cause of separation and have failed to achieve the principles of the social contract.

D: This picture further expands the topic of civil and natural rights by showing how tyrants has failed to achieve the social contract principles through the injustice Palestinians are currently exposed to. Moreover, we demand our natural rights that allow us to earn our freedom instead of the social contract we apparently signed that allow commanders to satisfy some political agenda instead of improving the society.

Work cites:

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. “The Social Contract”Shifting Narratives. Ed. Zane S. Sinno,    Lina Bioghlu-Karnakawi, Dorota Fleszar, Najla Jarkas, Emma Moughabghab, Jennifer M. Nish, Rima Rantisi, Abir Ward. Beirut: Educart, 2015. 113-115. Print