Patience

Israeli soldiers teach us one thing: the absolute necessity of being patient. We were stuck today for something like two hours at Qalandia check point, just waiting and waiting and waiting to be let through so we could go visit Jerusalem. Nothing very unusual, but normally when we finally pass through the final giant turnstiles we just show them our permits and IDs and everything is fine and we are let through. Today, however, they separated us. Humiliated us. I will tell you more about this tomorrow.

For now, this is a picture of Palestinian sabr: the cactus that grows all over this land and usually marks the borders of Palestinian farms.

Israelis can try to uproot the sabr growing around farms long ago bulldozed to the ground all they want--it will keep growing back over and over, refusing to leave its place in this world. Because sabr means patience. And patience is the only way to deal with this occupation.

Either that, or outright rage (but this will get you killed, so patience is to be preferred).