Victims of nationalism: A comparative study of the Lemon Tree and Sevdalinka

The Palestinians and the Bosnians have experienced two of the most miserable fates by virtue of national discrimination in modern era. The confusing point, here, is that the main reason of the miseries is the nations who had been exposed to the same discrimination and hurt. The Jews and the Serbs overdid the atrocities done to them regardless of their common historical and cultural backgrounds. The Lemon Tree mirrors Palestinian and Israeli conflict, the daily life, the nation's sufferings, and hope; Sevdalinka reflects the similar cases of Bosnian and Serbian conflict. The thesis analyzes the reflections of two historical cases on two narratives. The common grounds of the nations, the processes of building prejudice and deliberately discrimination, human rights violation are exemplified. As an artificial factor the concept of nationalism and kinds of nationalism are studied. The possibility of communication and co-existence of the nations having common cultural background is stressed. Regarding the whole process, it is concluded that the only or the most useful way to comfort for all the nations is to welcome and tolerate the other.