Monday December 13, 2004
Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

Hopes that Palestinian-Israeli relations were entering a more peaceful phase were violently dashed earlier as a huge bomb exploded beneath an Israeli army checkpoint on the Egyptian border. At least six Israeli soldiers were killed in the blast, with one missing and eight others injured. Two Palestinian militants burrowed 600 meters underground and planted 1,500 kg of explosives under the Israeli army post and blew it up. Public announcements in the streets of Gaza soon after the blast announced Hamas and a group called the Fatah hawks claimed responsibility for the explosion, who said the attack was in retaliation for the ‘assassination’ by Israel of Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat last month. Rumours are rife in the streets of Gaza that Arafat was poisoned in hospital by Israeli spies.

Israel retaliated quickly, killing one of the two militants which had planted the bomb, and sending Apache helicopters into the town of Rafah, opening fire on residential houses, killing a 36-year-old Palestinian. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has promised a strong response to the latest violence, but said Israel would withdraw its army from Gaza if Palestinian resistance groups stopped attacking Israelis. An Israeli government spokesman told Associated Press, “It is regrettable that while we are trying to restrain our forces to give the Palestinians a chance to prepare their elections, the terrorists are doing everything they can to scupper the negotiations.” Sharon has continually promised a complete withdrawal from Gaza of troops and all Israeli settlements, something popular with both Israelis and Palestinians. 

WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about Gaza / Palestine / Israel / bombs / Middle-East peace / Palestinian citizens / Israeli citizens / …
To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. HEROES / MURDERERS?: The perpetrators of the bombing are viewed differently by various sides, reflected in the terminology used to refer to them. Students talk about the following vocabulary quoted from Press sources reporting on the attack:
- ‘resistance fighters’ (Al-Jazeera)
- ‘terrorists’ (Raanan Gissin – Israeli government spokesman)
- ‘cold-blooded murderers’ (Israeli government spokesman)
- ‘heroes’ (Gaza residents)
- ‘Soldiers of God’ (Hamas spokesman)
- ‘liberators’ (Palestinian newspaper)
- ‘militants’ (BBC News)
- ‘revolutionaries’ (Cuban newspaper)
- ‘freedom fighters’ (Arab Press)

3. PALESTINE BRAINSTORM: Ask students for facts / feelings / opinions on the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Students talk about these in pairs.

4. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept:
The bombers are murderers, plain and simple. vs. The bombers are soldiers killing other soldiers – that’s called war.
Arafat was poisoned in his hospital bed by Israeli secret agents . vs How ridiculous.
Israel should never respond to violence by sending attack helicopters into residential areas, killing innocent people. vs Israel has a right to defend itself in any way it can.
Israel should not be occupying Gaza and the West Bank . vs. It isn’t an occupation, it’s self defence.
Peace will come to the Middle East soon. vs. Not in my lifetime.
The land is Israel’s. vs. The land is Palestinian.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘bomb’, ‘dash’, and ‘plant’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:
(a)  Palestinian-Israeli relations are entering a more peaceful phase.  T / F
(b)  A huge bomb exploded on the Lebanese border. T / F
(c)  Two Palestinians burrowed 600 meters underground to plant a bomb.  T / F
(d)  The attack was in retaliation for the ‘assassination’ of Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.  T / F
(e)  Israel retaliated quickly.  T / F
(f)  Israeli Prime Minister Ari el Sharon has promised no response to the attack.  T / F
(g)  Sharon has promised a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.  T / F
(h)  Most Israelis want Israel to pull out of Gaza.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	phase	explosion
(b)	dashed	to get revenge
(c)	a minimum of	ruined
(d)	blast	shooting
(e)	burrowed	armed fighters
(f)	in retaliation for	stage
(g)	opening fire on	pull out
(h)	withdraw	dug
(i)	resistance groups	at least
(j)	scupper	destroy

4. ARTICLE RECONSTRUCTION: Students try to predict the contents of the article from the following snippets of information:
- peace hopes dashed
- huge bomb
- 5 dead, many injured
- Israeli checkpoint
- underground
- retaliation
- Arafat poisoned
- Israeli retaliation
- Isareli withdrawal from Gaza
- Palestinian elections
- terrorists scupper negotiations

5. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	a more peaceful	responsibility
(b)	the Egyptian	for
(c)	one missing and eight	border
(d)	blew	with both Israelis and Palestinians
(e)	the Fatah Hawks claimed	it up
(f)	in retaliation	phase
(g)	opening	others injured
(h)	promised a strong	fire on
(i)	popular	response to the latest violence

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

Five Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza

Hopes that Palestinian-Israeli relations were __________a more peaceful phase were violently dashed earlier as a huge bomb exploded beneath an Israeli army checkpoint on the Egyptian border. At least five Israeli soldiers were killed in the __________, with one missing and eight others injured. Two Palestinian militants burrowed 600 meters underground and __________ 1,500 kg of explosives under the Israeli army post and blew it up. Public announcements in the streets of Gaza soon after the blast announced Hamas and a group called the Fatah hawks __________ responsibility for the explosion, who said the attack was in retaliation for the ‘assassination’ by Israel of Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat last month. Rumours are __________ in the streets of Gaza that Arafat was poisoned in hospital by Israeli spies.		rife claimed entering planted blast
Israel __________ quickly, killing one of the two militants which had planted the bomb, and sending Apache helicopters into the town of Rafah, opening fire on __________ houses, killing a 36-year-old Palestinian. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has promised a strong response to the latest violence, but said Israel would withdraw its army from Gaza if Palestinian __________ groups stopped attacking Israelis. An Israeli government spokesman told Associated Press, “It is regrettable that while we are trying to __________ our forces to give the Palestinians a chance to prepare their elections, the terrorists are doing everything they can to __________ the negotiations.” Sharon has continually promised a complete withdrawal from Gaza of troops and all Israeli settlements, something popular with both Israelis and Palestinians.		scupper retaliated restrain residential resistance

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

4. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

5. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

6. PEACE WILL (NOT) HAPPEN:  Students underline anything they think suggests peace will happen, and circle anything they see as a reason for peace not happening.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.
5. PEACE WILL (NOT) HAPPEN:  Students talk about the things they underlined and circled as reasons for optimism / pessimism in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

6. ‘BOMB / DASH / PLANT’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

7. DISCUSSION:  Students ask each other the following questions:
(a)  Was the attack on Israeli soldiers a terrorist attack or part of a legitimate war?
(b)  Now Arafat has gone, is peace between Israel and Palestine closer ?
(c)  Is Ariel Sharon a champion of peace or an obstacle?
(d)  Is the Palestinian struggle similar to the fight for East Timorese independence, anti-Apartheid in South Africa, the Republican movement in Northern Ireland, or others?
(e)  What are the Palestinians and Israelis fighting for?
(f)  What do you know of the history of this conflict?
(g)  Is Israel occupying Palestine?
(h)  Can Arabs and Israelis live side by side
(i)  Will Palestinian elections change things?
(j)  Groups like Hamas do not recognize the right of Israel to exist. What do you think of this?
(k)  What other questions do you have relating to this article?

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Israel. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. PALESTINE HISTORY: Create an information poster outlining the history of Palestine.

4. LETTER TO ARIEL: Write a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon advising him what to do following this latest attack.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

(a)  Palestinian-Israeli relations are entering a more peaceful phase.  F
(b)  A huge bomb exploded on the Lebanese border. F
(c)  Two Palestinians burrowed 600 meters underground to plant a bomb.  T
(d)  The attack was in retaliation for the ‘assassination’ of Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.  T
(e)  Israel retaliated quickly.  T
(f)  Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has promised no response to the attack.  F
(g)  Sharon has promised a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.  T
(h)  Most Israelis want Israel to pull out of Gaza.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	phase	stage
(b)	dashed	ruined
(c)	a minimum of	at least
(d)	blast	explosion
(e)	burrowed	dug
(f)	in retaliation for	to get revenge
(g)	opening fire on	shooting
(h)	withdraw	pull out
(i)	resistance groups	armed fighters
(j)	scupper	destroy

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	a more peaceful	phase
(b)	the Egyptian	border
(c)	one missing and eight	others injured
(d)	blew	it up
(e)	the Fatah Hawks claimed	responsibility
(f)	in retaliation	for
(g)	opening	fire on
(h)	promised a strong	response to the latest violence
(i)	popular	with both Israelis and Palestinians