Visual Essay

I have created a visual argument trying to show the Palestine vs. Israel war and how unjust of a war it is. You will notice that my attitude toward the situation is sad but yet angry, and this will easily be expressed by the music that I have chosen. What effect I was intended to have created to those who have watched this video, was to make them understand what is going on in the Middle East that doesn’t involve Iraq or Afghanistan but actually what Israel and America and what it is doing to the Palestinian citizens.

The media that I was required to use to create this visual argument could only is expressed through images and music. The way that these types of medium will convey a message was with the song expressing my sadness, anger, and desperation to the situation and the images telling why I felt the way I did about the situation. So during the creation of the visual argument I assumed that the viewer had little to no knowledge on the situations on this topic between the Palestinians and Israelis for many years and how United States and other powerful countries do nothing to help Palestinians and rather United States supports Israel. The overall impression that it has created in me was something like, “wow, stuff like this is happening almost everyday and how information like this does not reach the public?” It’s because Israel is doing everything in their power to prevent the world from knowing what they are doing. Another impression that it creates on me is, “It’s just like the holocaust all over again except it is the Jews who are the exterminators and Palestinians as the enemy.” During the visual essay, however, I try to evoke a negative feeling about what is going on, and do have a bit of a positive ending showing the Palestinian flag and moral of how we the Palestinians will never just give up and will fight from this oppression and will get our freedom and land back, Ending their occupation of Gaza Strip and the West Bank and stopping the development on Palestinian land.

The argumentative purpose of the visual essay was to convey was to stop supporting Israel and really understand what Israel has done to the Palestinians by taking their land, returning only a small amount back to the Palestinians and now slowly taking it away from them using force and building on it, thinking that if they (Israeli) build on the land should belong to them. The cultural value I try to invoke is no different then the feelings I was trying to express, the opposite of good, a hard life and having no freedom and no where to go. Emotions are the same story; sadness, shame, guilt, nostalgia, anger and all are expressed through just pictures and are amplified with the music.

The way that the visual argument is composed is that it starts by showing the holocaust refugees going to Palestine then going straight into what has happened because of that. Most of the pictures will have your eyes drawn in right towards the center, grasping the most important and then moving outward. In the foreground you will always see Palestinian casualties or conflicts with the Israeli soldier or destruction they have created and in the background you will always be the land of Palestine and what the Israelis have done to it, either destroying it or building on it. The pictures will also have motion to add a much more series and dramatic experience. The pictures will move from up to down for sad feeling and then down to up or zooming in for an uprising or encouraging feeling.

Overall the creation of my visual argument went very well I felt as though I was able to get my point across with only using pictures and songs. Images that I have used may have been graphic in nature but in order to show what I’m talking about and what is actually going on in Palestine. I also choose a pacing that was fairly quick to show that there are a lot of incidences like this that has happened and that there is a lot to show. My musical selection was also another way for me to express my feeling on the situation of Palestine vs. Israel. It has a tone to show my sadness and then escalate for my anger and then decrescendo to leave a feeling that the song can go on for much longer and that it could never end, kind of like the war has.