After driving through the settlement we came to a checkpoint. As always, per the request of our Palestinian guide, we moved a couple of blonde white girls to the front of the bus. In all other cases we have driven through with no problems.
Today, we had a problem. The privatized security guards working the checkpoint - mostly mizrachi and Ethiopian Jews to add a new dimension of intersectional oppression - decided to board the bus. They came on and walked through, guns and all, and decided we needed to each unload all our luggage and walk through metal detectors.
The bus pulled to the side and the students nervously pulled out their bags and passports. Everybody's passports and cell phones were collected and we sent our bags through an X-ray machine and walked through metal detectors.
I went first, and one of the security gaurds, noticing the Michigan gear we were wearing, told me that his family lives in Ann Arbor and he had made alyiah from New York. What the fuck, I wanted to ask, are you doing here checking a bunch of other Americans?
Instead I made small talk in hopes it would ease our passage. The students all came through mostly fine, our one Chinese student was asked more questions, but they all were mostly on confused shock.
Finally came Husam, our Palestinian guide. Mustafa, our Palestinian driver, had no problem as he has an East Jerusalem identity card. Husam pulled out his work permit and his ID card, and the guard decided it was the wrong permit. They began debating this and I went to fetch our Israeli guide, who had been leading students to the bathroom. He came in, everybody yelled in a mix of Hebrew and English, and eventually I was handed all the passports back and we loaded ourselves back onto the bus, with half the students in tears after their own experience and watching Husam argue for his right to do his job.
After a lot of processing on the bus, Husam encouraged everyone to cheer up, to enjoy their last day, and to use this experience to move their activism forward. That man has a level of patience, humanity, forgiveness and perseverance I cannot fathom.
So we spent the day in Tel Aviv and had a beautiful lunch in Jaffa and then I left the students as they headed to the airport and I made my way to a hotel in Jaffa.
After a shower and a few hours of laying in bed enjoying the sheer silence and solitude after three weeks of constant togetherness, I made my way out onto the streets of Jaffa in search of some seltzer. This was the one moment of hope I have had all day. The neighborhood I'm staying in is quite mixed, and as I walked down the streets I hear Hebrew and Arabic, saw little Ethiopian kids and hijabi women and Mizrachi Jews. I walked into a small market and when it was clear to the shop owner that my Hebrew was terrible, he immediately started speaking to me in Russian. Eventually we made our way in a combination of Hebrew, English and sign language.
My god this land is a fucked up place, but here in Jaffa, surrounded by orange trees, lemon trees and kumquat (!) trees, listening to the sounds of so many languages, I am clinging to the moments of beauty, hope and possibility.
Yuva, our Israeli guide; me; Husam, our Palestinan guide; Rima, my incredible co-leader; and Mustafa, our driver. Last night we celebrated the end of the trip and Mustafa's birthday, we danced the Palestinian debke, ate kenafe, and I tried to avoid all the hookah smoke. 
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