[do it again, but better]

It's finally 2012. We really are living in the future now. Soon it will be 2019, and then 2042, and then 2078. My grandchildren could be born in the 2050s.

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But that is a long way away from today. Right now, the world is in chaos. War, famine, natural disasters, crime, gender inequality, occupation, and unhealthy habits abound.

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This is the year that things are going to change, for better or for worse. This year, Presidential elections in the United States will change how Americans are viewed around the world, how international foreign policy affects war and peace, and how domestic policy affects the lives of millions of people.

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This year, governments and activists around the world are preparing to deal with the effects of global climate change: intense heat waves, outbreaks of malaria, increased floods, more cases of food poisoning (which increases along with average temperature), increased pollution, melting polar ice caps, continued deforestation and desertification, and the continued unnecessary endangerment of plants and animals (including us!).

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On the other hand, people everywhere are mounting an ever-stronger resistance to tradition, capitalism and occupation. All over the world, people are claiming their rights to equality and independence, to control their own fate.

And I believe, along with Paulo Coelho, that when you want something, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it.

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For me personally, 2012 is a year of momentous change. This marks the first year in which I have been free from the traditional bounds of education and the restrictive schedule and expectations of college.

I am 22 years old, and I am ready to make my own change. I am not following anyone else's lead now. Nothing is original, and I am preparing to steal and innovate on the worthy ideas of others this year.

I am brainstorming organizations that will support my own creativity (check back soon for official announcement), and that provide opportunities for others (friends and strangers) to do the same. I am living according to a system of morality that never keeps me awake at night. I am taking more risks. I am dreaming bigger, and slowly beginning to make concrete connections between my dreams and reality.

I have been around for more than two decades, and I'm not wasting any more time.

This year:

• I am prioritizing my health. (I will not eat gluten, nor will I consume animal products of any kind. I will eat as locally as possible, and I will minimize sugar consumption.)
• I am prioritizing my happiness. (I will not regret or resent time spent dreaming or recharging. I will value creativity and the simple pleasures in life.)
• I am prioritizing my intelligence and my dreams. (I will not let my own ideas and convictions fall by the wayside in the face of challenges from others. I will continue to educate myself and to seek opportunities to translate thought into action for the benefit of all living things. By the end of 2012, I will be operating my own non-profit.)
• I am prioritizing my loved ones. (I will be vulnerable with my friends and family, and I will support their dreams and well being as I support my own.)
• I am prioritizing my planet. (I will educate myself about environmental issues and sustainability. I will take steps to offset my own contributions to global climate change, and I will participate in meaningful activism that protects and respects the earth.)
• I am prioritizing peace. (I will not spend any time or energy on activities that do not directly contribute to increasing peace, whether they be in my personal or professional life, amongst family, friends, or co-workers, or on a local or global scale. I will engage in meaningful conversations and actions that encourage genuine peacemaking and reconciliation, as opposed to surface-level resolution.)

What are your commitments for 2012?

[the sound of silence: no copyright infringement intended]

(Note: This is a great post that includes a simpler explanation of the practical benefits of Vipassana and how to adapt Vipassana to fit your life.)

First thing you need to know is that Vipassana camp is like a road trip: always pee when you have the chance.

I just returned from a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat. Why on earth would someone participate in something like this? Well, I like my alone time. And I'm moving to the Middle East in two weeks, and wanted the chance to spend some time alone reflecting and developing deeper self-discipline before I go. And, I thought, hey, child monks are sooooo cute! And Buddha is a pretty cool guy. Sounds awesome.

Anyhow, the teaching of this particular technique requires students to commit to Noble Silence for all 10 days - this includes no speech, no gestures, no physical contact, and no eye contact. Students are free to ask the management or the meditation teachers for help if they need it, but no communication with fellow meditators is allowed. They're also asked to commit to several precepts, like no killing, lying, stealing, etc. Here's the schedule:

4:00 am		Morning wake-up bell
4:30-6:30 am		Meditate in the hall or in your room
6:30-8:00 am		Breakfast break
8:00-9:00 am		Group meditation in the hall
9:00-11:00 am		Meditate in the hall or in your room according to the teacher's instructions
11:00-12:00 noon		Lunch break
12noon-1:00 pm		Rest and interviews with the teacher
1:00-2:30 pm		Meditate in the hall or in your room
2:30-3:30 pm		Group meditation in the hall
3:30-5:00 pm		Meditate in the hall or in your own room according to the teacher's instructions
5:00-6:00 pm		Tea break
6:00-7:00 pm		Group meditation in the hall
7:00-8:15 pm		Teacher's Discourse in the hall
8:15-9:00 pm		Group meditation in the hall
9:00-9:30 pm		Question time in the hall
9:30 pm		Retire to your own room--Lights out

Altogether, that's 10+ hours of meditation per day. There is no dinner, only a piece of fruit and some tea. No talking about your feelings with your co-meditators, no asking your roommate to please change her behavior because it's irritating you, and no exercising (including situps, yoga, jogging, etc.) except walking on the pathways throughout the grounds on the sex-segregated areas. No reading or writing materials allowed, no contact with the outside world, and no phone or laptop.

The course is narrated by S.N. Goenka, a man of Indian origin but born in raised in Burma. The technique asks students to objectively observe their respiration and physical sensations in order to truly understand reality (it's more complicated than that, obviously -- here's a longer explanation). All group meditations began and ended with Goenka's voice on a CD, and every evening at 7:00 PM, all students (new and returning) sit in the meditation hall for his hour-long video evening discourse. Here's a Youtube clip of the hilariousness and oddity of the man.

So. Here follows my own personal account of my 10 day retreat at the Northwest Vipassana Center in Onalaska, WA. Background: all staff and teachers are volunteers, old students who have already completed at least one course (some more than 20!). The teachings are free. No fee is charged from students for the teachings, the lodging, or the food - it's run entirely on

donations. And let me tell you, the food was FANTASTIC. We had chili, Thai curry, mashed potatoes, and all sorts of delicious things.

I encourage everyone - anyone - who wants more peace and mental self-discipline in their life to look into these courses. Go to www.dhamma.org, and feel free to email me at smthgrlo@gmail.com.

Day 1. Full of energy and commitment! I can do this! A little fidgety in meditation sittings, but loving all the quietness my brain and ears are getting. Nap during breaks. Afternoon: SO BORED. Did my hair in multiple coiled braids Swedish-style. Drop into bed exhausted around 9:15 after observing my breath for 10+ hours.

Day 2. Roommate talks in her sleep. Ironic. Afternoon break is spent splitting leaves of grass and looking for four-leaf clovers.

Day 3. Couldn't get Goenka's accent out of my mind. Wonder absently for several hours why he says "aware" with a 'v' sound and "very" with a 'w' sound. Can't stop replaying Russell Peters routines in my head.

Day 4. Rearranged furniture in my imaginary apartment in my mind. Refolded all my clothes. Today's the day we learn Vipassana meditation (we have been practicing Anapana for the last three days to prepare our minds for Vipassana.

First Vipassana sitting of adhitthana, or determination. We're asked to sit for an hour without changing out posture (opening our eyes, hands, or legs). 10 minutes in, I realize that if my mind is calm enough I can stop a sneeze with a single thought! Nifty trick. 20 minutes in, the woman next to me starts shaking and sobbing. Oh god, oh, oh, god. Half an hour in, I decide my first meal post-retreat will be waffle fries and an oreo/peanut butter milkshake. 45 minutes in: may have experienced nirvana! ...Or my limbs may have just fallen asleep.

Done! I made it through my first adhitthana sitting and didn't move for an hour. Go back to my room and jot notes on my tissue box, where it occurs to me how ridiculous it is that I keep a secret pen and take notes on the underside of a tissue box, like a POW.

Day 5. Sleep through entire morning meditation session. In bed. So this is what stir-crazy feels like. Later in the day, I wonder if the tingling sensation I feel in my arm is akin to the feeling of having the Dark Mark activated. The meditation mat of the girl behind me is gone! Food brainstorm: thin pesto hashbrowns with a soft-boiled egg. Maybe I'll get a tattoo of Buddha's eyes, like my favorite stupa in Nepal. Yeah. Maybe "work out your own salvation with diligence." I feel like Cipher from The Matrix, wanting chocolate cake even though I KNOW it's not real.

Day 6. No, this is what stir-crazy feels like. My awesome roommate Alisha and I have done our hair the exact same way for the last two days. I guess we were each so bored that we came up with the exact same, equally complex hairdos. Had dreams about chilling with Fergie, watching an alternate end to the Titanic (tidal wave!), flying like an astronaut over zero-oxygen islands that look like a desert/bubbling/Madagascar-like, sci-fi world. Are they slipping something into my food?? 6-7 PM meditation: felt like a superhero! Observed all sensations equanimously.

Day 7. Wake up with "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus stuck in my head. I take it as a bad omen. Later: YOU GUYS. I felt like Yu-Gi-Oh when he transforms. Or the Little Mermaid. Or, sparkly, like Edward Cullen in direct sunlight. I can feel all my limbs tingling at once! I did it! Felt a free flow of subtle vibrations throughout the body!

Between meditation sessions, still getting bored. Drum out a rhythm on my tummy. Fold and unfold travel alarm clock. Attempt to balance said clock on one finger. Evening meditation sessions: woman dashes out of hall five minutes before adhittana is finished. I can hear the sounds gravel flying as she races down the path toward what I presume is the bathroom. Learned that lesson early, grasshopper.

Day 8. HATE the sound of Goenka's voice. Intensely. Remotely aware that this is not conducive to Vipassana or world peace and is probably a manifestation of some craving or aversion which my brain is attempting to face. 2 more days. 2 more days.

Day 9. Had dreams about being chased by a deviant psycho-killer who looked like Katy Perry. What is it with the pop stars? And this comes after the dream about the entirely nuclear-dependent world where I'm trying desperately to convince everyone to snap out of it.

At breakfast (where Noble Silence is also maintained - it's 24/7), my roommate and I arrive at the toaster at the same time and drop our slices of bread in and push the lever down. Once. Twice. ...Three times. Something's not working. We both reallllly want toast. She goes under the table to tug the cord over to another outlet and I silently assist by sliding the toaster over the counter. Still not there -- she peeks out from under the table. I slide a little more. She peeks out again. This repeats several times until we finally look each other in the eye and burst into a fit of silent, quaking giggles. SHOCKED by how good it feels to laugh!

Cat nap after breakfast: dream that a freak electro-magnetic pulse has turned on all my electronic devices and everyone knows it was I who broke the Noble Silence.

Later: I DID IT! I felt my entire body at the same time. Even the insides! Neat. Can I go home now?

Rest period before "dinner": tap out a jazz version of "Frosty the Snowman" on my tissue box. Do some Kegel exercises. Watch the numbers change on my alarm clock. 16 minutes til dinner.

Day 10. I made it! 10 days. Do I get a badge or something? There was a gorgeous, crescent moon out this morning, one of my favorite...wait, the ONLY good part about waking up at 4:00 AM. Three more hours til Noble Silence is broken.

Vow of silence is over! People are talking and laughing joyously, and it all sounds so foreign. Like hearing the deepness of a man's voice outside your dorm room, Smithies. I wonder if this is a tiny reflection of what liberation from Nazi concentration camps felt like (note: please ignore the obvious dissimilarities between meditation camp and the Holocaust).

We get a real dinner today! And our last dinner is hummus, falafel, and tabouleh -- a good omen for my upcoming trip. I make it a ritual to, on my last night in any one place, eat the food of the place I am going to next. An excellent omen indeed.

Day 11: day of departure. Wake up with "Baby" by JBiebs stuck in my head. Take it as an

excellent omen. 20 minutes of morning meditation, final video discourse, cleaning, and breakfast, and DONE! Wheeeeeee! Get a ride from two nice Bangladeshi guys back to civilization and enjoy the glow of enlightenment.

Overall, the course satisfied my goals of sharpening my self-discipline and self-awareness, and I also gained many other benefits, like alternative actions I could have used in certain situations in my past, deeper compassion for those I feel have wronged me, and a stronger ability to observe my thoughts and sensations neutrally.

Buddha once asked, "What happens to a gift which you refuse to accept?" The answer is that it does not become yours. If someone in your life presents you with a gift of abuse, or anger, or control, even if it's based on love, you don't have to accept it, and it remains with the giver. I used to hate all that "it's all about your attitude" crap, but this, this I can understand. At a deeper level, Vipassana is about understanding truth and reality as it is, and not as we would like it be. And we begin with ourselves. Compassion for all, and especially ourselves.

I'll admit that it was also really nice to be without phone or internet obligations for 11 days. My mind slowed down, and I became conscious of every step, every bite, every thought and every breath. And living off of the donations, goodwill, and service of others in a free course such as this one is a humbling experience. People of all backgrounds and means come to Vipassana courses, and there are Vipassana centers all over the world. Anyone, regardless of life experience,

profession, age, race, class, gender, religion -- anyone -- can and will benefit in some way from this sort of course, even if you're not big into meditation.

The courses and free of charge, and they're free of dogma. I enjoyed the quiet time and the chance to gain deeper insight into the workings of my own mind. And Goenka's nightly comedic antics during the discourses are more than enough reason to go take a course.

Buddha says that to become a monk or nun, to renounce worldly responsibilities and

devote oneself fully to Vipassana and to living with morality, mindfulness and wisdom, is the fastest way to reach liberation.

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This course has solidified my belief that I can create more meaning, generate more goodwill and compassion, and do more good in this world and for more people as a layperson. I can clothe and feed more people when I am not required to beg for these items myself, as a monk does. I may take longer to reach 'liberation' or 'nirvana', but I will remain committed, as I was before participating in the Vipassana course, to a life of mindfulness, compassion, and honesty

[the problems in the parable]

How is identity created, and how is cultural meaning produced? Do certain groups of people, certain genders, certain religions, have a greater affinity toward violence or nonviolence?

I believe the answer to that question is no -- at least not innately. However, circumstances, cultural training and indoctrination are creating generations of children who identify more with their particular community than as international human beings. And all over the world, children who don't have healthy adult role models are more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors -- obese parents, relatives who smoke, teachers who shout and belittle, or family members who are violent or misogynistic.

Adult role models are not the only ways that children learn how to think. What about the Power Rangers? Snow White? Winnie the Pooh coloring books? Tomorrow's Pioneers? MTV shows? Stories, books, and images also play a highly formative role in creating the identities and attitudes of children.

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If a child is exposed to mainstream gender norms and narratives, in stories and in real life (i.e. Disney fairytales where the prince rescues the princess, where girls always wear pink and are told how 'pretty' they look, and boys never wear dresses but always play with trucks and roughhouse in a 'boys will be boys' fashion), these are the attitudes and behaviors they will replicate in their own lives.

Of course, children's books and shows are meant to teach a community's values to the next generation. But what if those values are barriers to an equal, just and peaceful world?

The "Sammy Spider" series of children's books target English-speaking Jewish children as its main audience. One book is called "Sammy Spider's Israel Fun Book," and it follows Sammy Spider's trip to Israel with his human friend, Josh.

Firstly, the right to inculcate your children with your own cultural heritage is important, true. But some of the images and words in this series are teaching Jewish children official Israeli state rhetoric, and painting an inaccurate picture of Israel's position in the Middle East. Not to mention preparing Jewish children for the adult role of continuing to support the status quo of Israeli superiority in the region.

Let children be children, you say? Children deserve honesty from the adults in their lives, and they also have a right to truthful, peaceful education about their background and their heritage.

One page says, "Sammy happily enjoys Tel Aviv with all its noise," with the following picture:

This picture is missing a few things. Aren't there some people who wear head scarves in Tel Aviv? Isn't there anyone, Israeli or Palestinian or otherwise, who doesn't look like a European caricature? Note the woman and child pair at the upper left, close to the two umbrellas -- they are gazing at a sleeveless summer dress in the storefront window.

Kids' books should be educational and accurate. There are some Muslims and some Arabs in Israel -- including the Arab Israeli citizens that the State of Israel so proudly claims as proof that apartheid is not occurring in Israel. "Israel" itself is a claim, and a disputed claim at that. It is disputed by most Palestinians and by many the international community.

The book mentions a kibbutz dining hall, and also describes Jerusalem as follows: "Jerusalem is a City of Gold/ Filled with treasures new and old." Young readers are subtly being taught that not only is Jerusalem a thrilling and historical place, but that it belongs to Israel -- no other perspective is presented.

The most troubling portion of this book, in my opinion, was the two-page full spread map.

To be fair, young children will probably not pay much attention to the particular borders and names on this map. However, this book was published in 2004, when the Road Map for Peace was being debated. There is a 'Gaza' on the above map, but there is no clear West Bank. Perhaps that curve in the road connecting the 'Dead Sea' to the 'Sea of Galilee' is meant to represent the West Bank. But this map makes it appear that all of the land depicted belongs to the State of Israel.

What are other ways in which identity is instilled in young people?

Jewish day camps and summer camps typically teach children Hebrew and read the Torah (in a similar way to Islam, where madrassas teach Arabic in order to recite the Qur'an). Jewish schools, however, usually display the Israeli flag and celebrate Israeli holidays and cultural attitudes.

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I aim to create a world where identity is inclusive. For example, children are taught that the words "I am Jewish" can have a variety of meanings, and that none of them are exclusive. Identity is hierarchical, with 'human being' at the top as the most important identity a person holds.

"I am Jewish" can mean born to a Jewish parent or with Jewish roots; culturally Jewish; religiously Jewish; socially and ethically responsible; a supporter of human rights; or dedicated to peace and justice. Jewish identity is individual - just like all other identity categories. Not all Jews support Israeli apartheid. Not all Arabs are Muslims, and not all Muslims are terrorists. In my opinion, identity is a spectrum, not composed of discrete categories.

It should also mean, I am one among many. It should mean that identities are layered. Instead of separating, exclusive labels, like Jewish or French or Baha'i or young or female, we need uniting identities.

The only identity that we have the right and responsibility to instill in our children is 'I am a human being', with responsibilities towards all other living things.

In times of need, when children (and later, adults) need to make decisions, they will return to their fundamental identity as a human being. They will not feel a particular need to protect their own community and attack other communities, even if this behavior does exist in the subtle nuances of their lower-level identity. Nationality, nationalism and patriotism are potent sources of energy in today's world -- we must be careful what we teach our children.

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If a middle ground between absolute commitment to the homeland (or the church, or add your 'ism' here) and a simple affinity for our origins and heritage can be found, then the past can be the past and the future can be the future, where we are all simply human beings.

Yes, it's idealistic. And yes, it's being done today, in communities around the world like Costa Rica's peace education system and Sweden's gender-neutral preschool.

Think about your teachers, parents, babysitters, and other adult role models.

What have they taught you about 'your community', about 'belonging', and about 'identity'?

[the vernacular of the visionless]

My alma mater, Smith College, is currently hosting a small group of current students in Israel for a summer of participation in one of several Global Engagement Seminars. Students are invited to contribute to an official Smith blog as they travel, expand their horizons, complete internships, and talk with the locals.

A few weeks ago, an entry was posted titled "Words Matter," by Katy Swartz, '13. The piece discusses the use of the word 'apartheid' in describing contemporary Israel, and the author believes that 'apartheid' is an inaccurate and damaging characterization of Israel's policies. She cites a letter from the Vanguard Leadership Group that states,

"The use of the word 'apartheid' by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in its characterization of Israel is patently false and deeply offensive to all who feel a connection to the state of Israel. Your organization's campaign against Israel is spreading misinformation about its policies, fostering bias in the media, and jeopardizing prospects for a timely resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

I'm going to re-state her main points, and show where Katy has gone wrong.

The main points, as I understood them, were that 'apartheid' cannot be applied to Israel because of the following reasons:

• 'Apartheid' refers to race, and "Judaism is not a race"
• 20% of Israel's citizens are Arab, and they have "full and equal rights under Israeli law"
• If Israel were racist against Arabs, it would not act justly toward its own Arab-Israeli citizens on the one hand, but unjustly toward Arabs and Palestinians elsewhere
• Self-governance, as the author defines the presence of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza, would not occur under apartheid
• "An apartheid regime would...[wish] to remain sovereign over the group it were oppressing because it would likely be benefiting from the forced labor of the citizens"

The author also makes the following (I think, problematic) statements:

• Palestinians were offered a two-state solution and rejected it; as such, they are implicitly to blame
• Palestinians were offered citizenship in East Jerusalem and "refuse[d] to participate in the city government"
• "Israel is still committed to the establishment of the state of Palestine in the Palestinian territories"
• Israel's recent 'control' policies are "a result of Palestinians blowing up innocent Israeli civilians (which of course did not happen in South Africa)"
• "Israel remains dedicated to finding a solution within the parameters that allow for the Jewish state to remain in existence alongside a future Palestinian state"

Well. Let's unpack some of this, shall we?

First of all, some background on the author:

Katy Swartz will be a junior at Smith next year, self-identifies as an orthodox Jew, and is a Jewish Studies major at Smith. By no means am I claiming that Jews are innately unable to make valid contributions to this conversations (and, as Lucas Koerner proved, Jewish ethics can be a large motivating factor to stand with the Palestinians), but I believe that knowing an author's background is an essential part of understanding their belief system and teasing apart their biases.

She is on this summer program with other Smith students of varying opinions and identities surrounding the conflict. I'm sure the experience may at times feel threatening to her beliefs and her identity. I applaud Katy for attempting to engage in these difficult conversations, and for making public her opinions and her frustrations.

Katy was raised in a Jewish household (see above interview) and I have seen her, along with other student members of the Smith Israel Alliance, at many related events on campus. I particularly remember her presence at a presentation by scholar and author Norman Finkelstein on campus in Spring 2011. She and her peers put up posters from CAMERA on the doors to the venue where Finkelstein was speaking, and handed them out to folks as they entered the building.

These fliers are despicable, shabby, inaccurate, discriminatory pieces of literature with a Zionist agenda and absolutely no constructive or intellectual value, in my opinion, and in the opinion of others, including Uri Strauss with the Palestine Action Coalition (see his piece on apartheid and Israel here and note his comment on Katy's post here).

Here's the flier (from CAMERA)... And here's Finkelstein (from his website)

The flier from CAMERA purposefully utilizes a photograph of a gun-toting, turban-wearing, bearded Arab man for shock value, and coercively manipulates the viewer into associating Finkelstein with the fear and hatred of 'the Arab'. It utilizes the color pink in a way that suggests that Finkelstein is effeminate or gay, and subversively uses homosexuality as a reason to discredit Finkelstein's academic and intellectual value (indeed, when typing 'Norman Finkelstein' into Google, 'Norman Finkelstein gay' pops up). More crucially, the flier contains biased sources and surface-level answers that are absolutely inappropriate and disrespectful to the event and to the speaker and the hosting organizations. I hold anyone who hands out these fliers responsible for their message.

Uri Strauss, currently the Law Fellow with Western Mass. American Friends Service Committee, published an article in 2002 titled "Defining Apartheid: Israel's Record." Strauss points out that 'race' is widely interpreted under UN Conventions, and would include Jews as a race. We cannot use the technicality of language to allow occupiers and human rights abusers to escape responsibility. I would suggest that perhaps genocide is a more accurate description, as defined by the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2:

"any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Whether or not Judaism is considered a race, Israel is still upholding blatantly discriminatory and abusive policies.

Katy's second point about the "full and equal rights under Israeli law" for Arab citizens of Israel is simply incorrect. The Arab citizens of Israel have been subject to consistent and repressive policies since the founding of the state of Israel, including land grabs, racist laws, home demolitions, forced migration (see this article from Middle East Monitor). Even if Arab citizens of Israel were treated like royalty, this has no bearing whatsoever on the treatment of other Palestinians within the borders that Israel currently claims.

Her next point (that a racist regime does not pick and choose where it practices racism) is ridiculous. Any racist act by a regime means it is a racist regime, in the same way that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere" (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.). Sure, everyone's a little bit racist sometimes from a sociological perspective, but we're not all committing systemic genocide on a societal level.

Katy also states that self-governance would not occur under apartheid. Firstly, self-governance can absolutely occur under apartheid (Bantustan, anyone?). In addition, the Palestinian Authority has been perceived by Palestinians to be corrupt, unrepresentative, and unsupported and disrespected by the majority of the outside world. The PA may wear the mask of self-governance, but it does NOT represent genuine self-governance.

She also makes the point that an apartheid regime would wish to remain sovereign over the oppressed group to benefit from its forced labor. Israel either DOES implicitly benefit from cheap Palestinian labor, with crowds of men sitting near roads hoping to land a temporary menial labor job with a passing Israeli, OR the ridiculous permit system in combination with checkpoints prohibit Palestinians from having good jobs within Israel or within the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

For me, Katy's analysis relies on a lack of historical understanding of what power dynamics, collective memory, cultural narratives, and 'resistance' mean, and more specifically what these terms mean to Palestinians. Decades of mistreatment and neglect from the majority of the international community have created generations of Palestinians that are struggling with notions of identity and homeland. Many Palestinians still hold the deeds to land inside Israel. Millions of Palestinians have been born outside the holy land, but still identify with the history, the myth, and the physical place of Palestine. Without a fully functioning, recognized, supported government, and subject to all forms of economic sanctions, physical and mental abuse, I wonder how Katy recommends that Palestinians reconcile their past, their present and their abusers, and their dreams for a future.

Arundhati Roy describes it well, saying

"Can the hungry go on a hunger strike? Non-violence is a piece of theatre. You need an audience. What can you do when you have no audience? People have the right to resist annihilation."

Palestinian suicide bombers are resisting occupation and humiliation. I do not condone violence against anyone or anything, but I understand why certain parties are behaving and reacting in the ways that they do; as Arundhati Roy says, they are 'resisting annihilation'.

Katy also explains that Israel is not committing the crime of apartheid, but rather utilizing 'control' strategies as a result of "Palestinians blowing up innocent Israeli civilians." The destruction of human life (or animal life, or natural forms of life, in my opinion) is never desirable. But we must call a spade a spade. Or it's not quite a spade, let's call it 'frustrating' and 'harmful' if we don't have the right words to describe it.

In the end, we can all agree that something is clearly wrong in the holy land, and we are all responsible for what has happened in the past and for what will happen in the future. We are all complicit parties to this conflict, until it is resolved. No one -- neither Israelis nor Palestinians nor aid workers nor tourists nor Druze, etc. -- feels secure, and everyone deserves that right.

I believe it is possible to achieve a satisfying, secure outcome for all parties, and that the first step is to watch our language and listen to each others' stories. But as long as the vernacular of the visionless presides, there will be neither peace nor justice in the Holy Land.

To Katy (and others reading this), this is not meant to be a personal attack, and I do apologize if it feels that way. If you're reading this, I'm interested in hearing back from you. You can post a comment or email me at smthgrlo@gmail.com, and I promise to respond respectfully and promptly.