Defining Occupation.

A van full of students on their way to class,

arbitrarily stopped by the armed men in green.

Passports handed over, but they take their time--

laughing, smiling, joking amongst themselves.

The passengers inside remain silent, stone-faced.

"You're really students?" they ask, or rather, taunt.

"Fine you can go" [but only because we let you].

"What is the purpose of this?" I question with anger,

"beyond harassment and systematic degradation?"

Beyond an assertion of the alleged superiority

of one 20-something, one people, over another?

I ask a classmate later, and this is all that I am told:

"Ah this, this is the occupation."

*Please know that I feel hesitant to post something so political, to step into the middle of a conflict that I do not [and will not ever] fully understand, to speak of this struggle that is not my own. I know that the story is far more complex than this snapshot. I do not claim any conclusions and hope to share more context with time. However, I am making the choice now to tell of what I experience with my own eyes and ears and heart, as honestly and accurately as I am able.