New Blog!

Although this blog has served me well, I have a new blog that better fits my needs. You can continue reading my views on politics, current events and journalism, and access my complete portfolio on my new blog: http://thepoliticaljournalist.wordpress.com/

Please update your bookmarks and subscriptions and let me know what you think!

New Blog!

Although this blog has served me well, I have a new blog that better fits my needs. You can continue reading my views on politics, current events and journalism, and access my complete portfolio on my new blog: http://thepoliticaljournalist.wordpress.com/

Please update your bookmarks and subscriptions and let me know what you think!

Studying abroad can benefit your education, your career and most importantly - yourself

This article was posted on the Talent Egg's online magazine called the Career Incubator.

When I decided to study abroad last year, I knew that the decision would open new doors for me, academically and personally. But I never really imagined the impact it might have on my life.

As a third year student at the University of McGill, I knew that although I loved Montreal and the educational institute I was in, I needed a change. I felt that to truly benefit my education, it would be in my own best interest to take time to learn things from a different perspective - a new perspective.

As a political science student, I focused on international relations and my search for an exciting place to study led me to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. With a fantastic reputation and great incentives, I completed the long application form with just a couple months to spare before the term began. In early December, I received my acceptance letter, booked a flight to Israel, and left for a new experience.

Studying abroad is a new phenomenon among university students. A Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) study indicated that “91% of employers (interviewed) identified the importance of cultural and other benefits (from study abroad).” Learning a new language, living in a different culture, becoming more independent and self-sufficient are only a few of the skills students learn, and bring back, to their home university.

Abby Plener, an English Literature major at McGill University, spent a semester at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. “My semester abroad taught me a lot – probably more than I will ever realize or could even begin to process now,” she said. Employers and academics are remarking the importance of studying abroad in allowing students to have a well-rounded education.

Thevi Pather, Associate Director at Camosun College, said “After 15 years of work in International Education, it never ceases to amaze me when I see the profound changes that occur in a student after their return from a study abroad experience. Many leave our shores with nervous excitement, but very visible fear of the unknown. Most students return brimming with confidence, and ready to tackle the next big challenge in their young lives.”

Researchers are now even attributing an improved academic performance after students return to their home campus from studying abroad according to an in-depth analysis on study abroad headed by the Georgia Learning Outcome of Students Studying Abroad Research Initiative (GLOSSARI).

Eden Sagman, a McGill graduate who now works in the high tech industry in Israel, where she spent a year studying abroad in 2008, says her program has helped her break into the business she always dreamed of working in. “Studying abroad enhanced my education. It opened my eyes to other perspectives about controversial issues,” she said. Learning about new cultures is key to a flourishing economy, which needs new ideas to breed entrepreneurship and start up companies.

Although studying abroad has been seen as beneficial, it can be difficult to arrange. Picking a school, approving courses, planning a budget and often enduring a longer semester are all part of the difficulties of studying abroad. You can look forward to meeting with ten professors just to get one course approved, and once you return, you have to ensure all your information is received in a timely fashion. However, don’t let this bureaucracy hold you back. Studying abroad helped me realize so much about myself that I never would have discovered. I learned to be independent in a foreign country, navigate across cities and met incredible people along the way. And I know next semester, my education will have benefited because of it.

“While at UCT, I often got the question, ‘Why are you studying here? The universities are so much better in North America.’ In general, studying abroad made me reflect a lot on the degree to which Western countries have a monopoly over education – defining the standards of what is “good” education, how the university system should work, what we value in or educational institutions, and even the texts and authors we focus on,” Plener said.

There are so many other viewpoints out there - and studying abroad makes us question everything we're learning, and helps us become better people. We learn to always strive to demand the best out of educations and ourselves.

"Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus"* (Cicero)

Paul William Roberts' book, "Homeland" depicts America's downfall from 1950 to 2050, where she becomes an isolated world empire. His work of fiction, although many of the events he describes are real and familiar (watergate scandal, US coup d'etats in Panama, Georgia, Lebanon...),  describes how modern day America becomes a cold, unfriendly country, seeking world domination. National security is at such a risk, that in 2050, American presidents are no longer identified by name - you vote for a party instead. Media corporations all work together to relay one message and this is all carefully coordinated by the policy planning committee of the US administration.

As the main character recounts the last years of his life, he gives us a chilling image of the world to come: Israel is destroyed by a Chinese nuclear bomb that wipes out the entire country; a "friendship war" erupts between the US and Canada, and the US conquers Canada, becoming "The United States of North America, USNA." (And of course, the nuclear bomb the US uses to gain Canada - and all the resources she comes with - does not destroy the precious Alberta oil fields); a nuclear bomb destroys Seattle and other American states; Muslims are no longer free to practice their religion in the US so they either leave or practice in hiding; the US finds itself in a another cold war, this time against the Chinese; and so the US becomes a "super-government" in control of all other governments, known as "US-Global."

The brief description of the plot in the book's insert describes all these events and initially, it seems it will be a fascinating tale of America's downfall (or perhaps rise?) that will take place in just forty years. Yet, these events are only related in the last eight pages of this book and instead, the author focuses on depicting the very slow US regression from 1950. The first 250 pages of this book tell the story of the US as we know it - or perhaps, as we don't know it. The book sheds a new light on the US relationship with Saudi Arabia, Israel, the war in Iraq (just a plan to access oil, all along) and various other foreign policy operations that the US plays a discreet role in overthrowing their democratically elected governments: Panama 1989, Serbia 2000, Belarus 2001, Georgia 2003, Ukraine 2004, Kyrgyzstan 2005, and Lebanon 2005.

By revealing how the policy planners and advisors work in the US administration, the reader finds himself slowly understanding how the carefully constructed national security and foreign policy objectives can all come crumbling down. For example, the main character is recruited to work as the head of a policy planning organization. His job is to research the best foreign policy options for the United States. However, as he explains in the book, he is manipulated and presented with information to make certain decisions, only realizing later on that his thoughts were controlled by someone else.

One of the main ways the book expresses the failure of democracy in the US is that even when presidents change, foreign policy often doesn't (and for those of you who say Obama is changing this, know we have yet to see him take any different action than his predecessors, even though he claims his views are different) and this is because those who work in the US administrations - the advisors, the planners, the less prestigious jobs - they do not change every four years. Their opinions and thoughts continue on ensuring US foreign policy generally remains the same.

So while the book is interesting, especially for a political science junkie like myself (and I do note that if you haven't heard of terms like the military-industry complex and realpolitik, the book does not really give any basic explanations), the most fascinating part of the book is left till the end. It is only in the last eight pages that we hear of the deterioration of the US. In fact, it is only in the last chapter that the author begins discussing the 21st century. Perhaps the author wants us to realize how the events that occurred and are occurring will affect the world as we know it, and therefore he takes us down a slow recount of all the mistakes the US has made in the last hundred years. But readers expect the author continue this slow recounting, and the last ten pages of the author's explanation of the new world order, feel rushed and neglected.

I believe the author made this deliberate choice to show us that it does not really matter what happens in 2050 - the specifics don't matter but the general picture might (hopefully not) come true: nuclear bombs, global warfare, lack of privacy and freedoms. The names of the countries can be interchangeable - the author knows it doesn't have to be China who drops the bombs, and it might not be the Muslims who are kicked out of the US, but some ethnicity will, and some country will use a nuclear bomb. That's the point he is hoping to achieve.

Does this mean we need to send the US administration letters expressing our concerns or write to the media demanding our freedoms? It means we have to learn from the main character's mistakes: we have to learn to be aware. Only when a hundred years go by, and the world as we know it has changed and can never go back to what it was, will we realize what we missed. So the author is asking us to open our eyes, in the hopes that his story never comes true.



* We are slaves of the law in order that we may be free

The return to the not-so-holy land

So a few weeks ago, I returned to Canada from my five month voyage to Israel (and a brief stop in Zurich, Switzerland). I already miss the language, hearing little kids speak hebrew, the great food, the sensuous smells, the chaos and the holiness. But being home has its comforts too - its nice to host others, rather than always being hosted and its great to continue my 'real' life, get excited for the summer and start my great internship.

Since I've been back, I've realized that it's hard to remember everything you learned abroad. It's easy to forget you spent five months in another country, learning and growing from others around you. What I've learned is that all the answers I thought I would have by now don't exist. I've learned that I have more questions - about the Arab-Israeli conflict, about the future of Israel, about the value of education and about the possibility of world travel and new experiences. I may not have all the answers, but I feel I have gained from my time abroad, enough to know that those experiences were valuable and necessary for my education. And when I bring them back to my final year of my undergraduate study program, I know I can make a meaningful contribution to my academic career and the educational institute I will be in.

Getting close to the end

With just under a month left to go, my time in Israel seems very precious. I'm not sure when I will be back but I hope it will be soon. What is it about this land, that makes us yearn to be here, fight over this valuable land, die for this land?

Last week I visited the tombs of the patriarchs and matriarchs in Hevron, a mostly-Arab town. It surprised me how easy it was to get there. We went to the regular Jerusalem bus station and took a bus for an hour and arrived right in front of these tombs. The minute we got there, we heard the afternoon Arab call to prayer. It was ironic, or perhaps a little sad, that this holy Jewish site is now surrounding by those that do not value it. When you walk inside, you are immediately struck by the intricate designs of these caves. Beautiful patterns decorate the wall, but if you look closely, you see that the walls are covered in Arabic writing (which I could not read - new goal in life: learn to read Arabic), which shows us the transfer of power throughout history: a once Jewish site was once controlled by Arabs and is now back in the hands of Jews.

It's striking that by traveling only an hour away you enter a completely different world: Arab children playing with goats and chickens, broken down homes with rooster pens, and, sadly, the appearance as if this town is in a third world country. Why can I travel such a short distance and suddenly appear in an opposite world? I wish I could understand the reasons for these differences - is there someone we are to blame? Is it the Israelis? or is it the lack of self-determination and the Arabs refusal to become independent? Is there a way out of this situation? I know attempting to make a town like this more developed by simply providing them with higher technology tools might not solve anything, but is there something we can do?

It seems to be that the Arabs feel, and are, stuck: they have lived in these conditions for so long, it's hard to imagine anything else. But that is precisely the problem. The Jews in the early creation of Israel refused to live in these conditions and so they began to develop the country. Why has this technique failed in Arab villages? Has this technique ever been attempted?

And finally, what does the future predict for these Arab villages? Can we expect any sort of change?

Holocaust Memorial Day - Yom Hashoah

Last week, we were privileged to attend a Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) ceremony at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. After making it through three different rounds of security (bag checks, answering questions, more bag checks and the new check to detect any chemical residues on our hands in the last 24 hours), we arrived at Yad Vashem. The ceremony was outdoors with thousands of people from all over the world sitting together, watching this historic, heart-wrenching event. A memorial candle was lit by Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council.

The President of Israel, Shimon Peres, also delivered a speech (in quite difficult Hebrew, that actually required us to put in our translator headphones). He said that the victims of the Holocaust later became the state builders of Israel and for that, and so much more, we will always remember their legacy. There are two imperatives, he said, we must always remember: we must maintain our Jewish state, and build up our defense strongly, and we must take seriously threats of annihilation, like those coming from Iran. We can never allow a regime to stand forth and declare that their race or religion is superior - it is our responsibility to ensure no regime can ever do so again. He then turned to a Holocaust survivor sitting next to him and said, "Jewish history salutes you." He concluded with a powerful statement: No other nation has been beaten like the Jews, and no other nation has rebounded like the Jews."

Prime Minister Netanyahu also delivered a moving speech, which we were mostly able to understand in Hebrew. We are all sitting there today because, before their deaths, the Holocaust victims and heroes begged us never to forget them, to tell their stories. It was ironic, that after a week of beautiful weather, that night it was freezing cold. The wind was so strong and since many of us did not know we would need jackets, we sat shivering in our seats. Perhaps we were supposed to understand a tiny taste of what it is like to sit in cold, windy weather without any means of comfort (of course, ours was on a minuscule level, but I believe that any way we can learn to connect our lives with the Holocaust survivors is important, because by making these connections, we ensure we do not forget them). PM Netanyahu asked us: from ashes and dust, Israel came about. Did we learn anything from their sacrifices? We learned, and we must continue to learn, three important lessons:

a. To protect the good and fight against the bad. In every generation, there are those who stand against us, but we must ensure that every person has a right to live and have his freedoms protected. It is our job to ensure that the Nazi ideology never succeeds. We must ask ourselves: what values are we raising our children with? What are we doing to fight our enemies?

b. There is a limit to how much we can be patient and kind, there is a limit to the values of understanding we must preach. Because we cannot let our desire to teach understanding and patience overrule our necessity to defend our state.

c. We can never be silent when faced with evil, and that is why PM Netanyahu called on the UN and all other states to recognize the Iranian threat and stand against it.

He ended with saying that we did not get here by accident. We are here because it is our land and we must protect it.

The next day, on the cover of many newspapers, were these words: להילחם ברע וחנך לטוב - to fight against evil and educate for the good. And I had the privilege to hear these words straight from the Prime Minister himself. That is the beauty of this study abroad program - instead of reading books and newspapers, we partake in history ourselves.

Days of Rage, Days of Calm

At the beginning of this week, the Hurva (literally 'ruin') synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City was rebuilt. This synagogue has a long history of being destroyed and rebuilt, and this particular re-dedication was seen as a symbol of Jewish strength and the Jewish presence in Jerusalem.

And, of course, with the feeling of a Jewish strength comes the feeling of an opposing presence in Jerusalem - the belief that the Jewish presence is not the correct one. For this dedication, 3000 police were deployed across Jerusalem, correctly anticipating it would cause a big reaction. And it did. Hamas declared a "day of rage" and riots and protests occurred across the city. About 80 people were arrested, some were shot, others injured... but I think it sounds worse than it was.

Our dorms are located right on the border of East Jerusalem and we live surrounded by Arab villages. Yet I don't feel scared. I feel like this is part of my life, living amongst Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians. From our classrooms, we saw riot police guarding our school. From our cafeteria, we heard the sounds of firecrackers and gun shots (often shot in the air to scare people, not to actually murder). A Jewish policeman who was shot was taken to the hospital right next to us, Hadassah hospital. Yet our lives continued as normal, as this day of rage passed. The only difference was that I didn't go into the Old City that day, as our school warned us that it actually was dangerous, and I've stopped walking alone at night.

I think I understand how people live in this country and don't feel scared all the time. Yes, you're probably surrounded by more enemies than your average day in Canada, but this is the life you choose for yourself. You choose to fight and to learn which fight is the right fight. We chose to come here. I didn't choose to pick a side, I chose to come and learn. Learn how to see both sides, learn how to appreciate the delicate situation we are in. So I don't feel rage. I feel proud this synagogue was rebuilt because it is a signal of the preservation of Jewish life in Israel for centuries. And I understand why others are upset - because they want to have a signal of the preservation of Arab life in Israel for centuries. I just don't think I need to protest and riot to show that.

So the day of rage has passed, and we're left under this 'calm.' The question remains: will this calm ever last? or are we merely waiting for the next day of rage to occur?

Diverse cultures

During my month of ulpan, we have been lucky to get to know people from very diverse cultures. The students in my class come from all over the world: Canada, the States, Germany, Russia, China and Japan to name a few. All these students have come together to learn Hebrew and live in Israel. I asked my Russian friend why he started studying Hebrew and he said "I didn't choose Hebrew, Hebrew chose me." My American friend and I looked at each other and thought, "Really, Hebrew can choose someone in Russia??" I guess the point is that this language is unique to everyone - it's something the most diverse people can find a connection with and that is something special.

I have continuously noticed that whether my teachers are religious or secular, Jewish or not, the Jewish religion is frequently referred to in class in various contexts. When we study vocabulary, my very secular teacher will often quote a phrase from the Bible to explain the meaning of the word. I don't think this is something you can find anywhere else. In Israel, you cannot ignore religion, you cannot really disappear from it. Yes, you can choose not to follow anything but even so, you will still have a deep knowledge and education of the Bible and religious concepts.

A few weeks ago, we had a guest lecturer for ulpan. She was a young woman who had immigrated (and by immigrated, I mean walked) to Israel when she was a baby. She told us the story of her very long journey. The Jews of Ethiopia believed in the Bible and the Jewish traditions, which they follow to this day. She told us they dream of returning to Israel every single day. However, since they were separated from mainstream Judaism a long time ago, they were not aware of many 'updates' or new rabbinical decrees on Jewish tradition. The Jews of Ethiopia also believed Jerusalem was really entirely built from gold, since it says that Jerusalem is a city of gold. They didn't even know that other cities existed in Israel - they thought the entire country was just made up of the golden city of Jerusalem.

It was shocking to hear that, to this day, the Ethiopians believe that the Jewish temple still exists in Jerusalem. She had believed that her whole life until she came to Israel and was heartbroken to learn that it was destroyed.

The Ethiopians also had a more literal translation of the Bible than mainstream Judaism, which uses the understandings of the oral law to expound on the laws. When they arrived in Israel, they found it difficult to keep shabbat the way mainstream Jews here do it. For example, her family still eats cold food on shabbat because they were not used to heating up food on shabbat.

Their trip was not easy in the slightest. They always dreamed of Jerusalem but it was too dangerous to embark on the journey. Different Jewish Ethiopian communities would just wake up and decide that day to start walking. They just walked towards the direction they believed Jerusalem was in, with the clothes on their back and the little amount of food they could bring. On this woman's journey, a large community trekked together to Jerusalem. However, due to the heat of the desert and the fact that they couldn't carry enough food and water, over 1400 people died on the journey. Her mother got extremely sick and was left in the desert because they believed she was dead. She was later found alive by kind soldiers who nursed her back to health and later reunited her with her daughter.

Traveling in the desert was not easy. They had to travel through Sudan, while being wary of Sudanese soldiers who would put them in jail if they were found, since it was illegal for them to leave Ethiopia through Sudan. After these hundreds of men, women and children suffered through the desert, the heat, the fear of capture, starvation and exhaustion, they finally made it to Israel.

Arriving in Israel was in no way the end of their hard journey. When they arrived in Israel, they were shocked to learn that Jerusalem was not made of gold. They didn't know modern cities like Tel Aviv existed. The holy, spiritual land they pictured was nothing like they imagined it. They were surprised to learn that not every Jew was observant here. It was a big shock and a huge adjustment, as if 2000 years disappeared from their lives, forcing them to recreate their vision of modern Jerusalem. And even after their entire journey, they were told that since it was not certain that they were Jewish, they would have to undergo the Jewish conversion process. This is a physically, emotionally and spiritually difficult process to go through and it upset them to go through it. The hardest thing for them, according to our speaker, was feeling like they were not accepted in Israel. They felt like they didn't belong to any one place, or any one sect.

Today, the Ethiopian Jews are more integrated into society but there are still lots of tensions among the 'native' Israelis and the Ethiopians. Like any new immigrant, they often occupy the lower class jobs. They have to re-adjust to life in a foreign country, a new language, a different culture and hope to be accepted for who they are.

It's difficult to say if I would ever embark on a journey like that - I can't imagine picking up my life and making my way through a desert to a land I only dreamed about. But I guess every Jew has to find their way back to Israel sometime and every Jew has to hope that the difficult journey will be worth it.

A hint of good things

Today, I saw one of the nicest things I've seen in a long time. I was doing some quick grocery shopping on my way home from school and I stopped off at the local store, Mr. Zol (Mr. Cheap), which should really be called Mr. Yakar (Mr. Expensive). The store was packed for a change, so I picked up the few things I needed quickly. After debating which busy line I should wait in, I picked cashier #3. I was impatiently waiting in line, while the elder lady in front of me paid for her items. Finally, it was my turn. Once she ringed up my purchases, I paid and started putting them in plastic bags. I noticed there were two boxes of pasta lying there and I wondered if the lady in front of me had forgotten to take them. I glanced back and saw the cashier was already in the middle of ringing up the next customer's things so I didn't want to bother her. I debated for a minute and then I told her (in Hebrew of course) that the woman left her pasta on the counter. She quickly stopped what she was doing, even though the line was so long, picked up the box and walked out the store yelling for the woman to pick up her pasta box. She walked to the end of the block to give it back to the woman, and then walked back into the store and continued helping that customer she had left behind. I looked at her and smiled and thought to myself that that small action means so much to people who have difficulty believing in the good of mankind.

Maybe I'm over-analyzing this, but maybe, just maybe, there are people who stop what they are doing and walk a block away to return a two dollar item to their owner. That woman will never know how her action affected me.

The Life of an Israeli Student

Things have been so hectic here that it's been hard to find time to just sit back and relax. I know once this week passes, we will have more time to enjoy our 'free time' and start touring Israel.

Our ulpan classes started on Sunday and we now have school from 8:30-1:15 every day. It doesn't sound like a lot but it is definitely a big adjustment. At McGill, the longest course I've ever had was only 2 hours long so getting used to 4 hour ulpan classes has been difficult. I am also not used to waking up so early - we have to leave our apartment by 8 am (it's about a twenty minute walk) if we want to get to class on time. The ulpan classes are also more like high school classes than university ones - we have daily homework, weekly tests, we do work in class and the teacher actually checks the answers.

Besides from ulpan, I wish I could say I've been spending my afternoons doing very exciting things. But so far, we've been running around Jerusalem picking up things we need for our apartment, buying groceries, and learning about the area. So it's been a lot of shlepping things up the hill to our dorms. Lucky for us, nice boys have kindly offered to help us carry our groceries or we would never have been able to make it back.

I've been trying to appreciate how lucky I am to study in Jerusalem. As I write this, I am staring out my classroom window, overlooking a view of Jerusalem (and the Arab village right next to us) - a much better view than the couchetard on Stanley. Our campus also has a beautiful botanical garden that we walked through yesterday (not exactly on purpose - we were looking for a cafeteria and ended up getting lost). It's amazing to think that everything I can see and touch are thousands of years old.

I'm also starting to get used to showing my ID, having my bags checked and walking through a metal detector as I enter school. It makes McGill's two security guards seem amateurish.

I'm hoping as we finish running errands we can start to really tour the vast campus and start visiting interesting sites in Israel. For now, I'm off to my Latin Aerobics class.

Officially in Israel!!

I finally, finally arrived in Israel on Thursday night (after a three year journey I think). It's nice to come full circle - I've wanted to spend a good amount of time in Israel for the past few years and I am finally here, doing what I said I would do. From the moment I passed security at Pearson Airport (which was extremely lax, by the way), I had this huge smile on my face. I knew I would miss my family a lot, but I was finally going to live in Israel for a few months and explore this land and my identity on my own. It was a little difficult to make the decision to come here but so far I am so glad I did it. I know I will be having life altering experiences here.

Once I arrived, I took the sherut (taxi bus) to my sister's apartment in Bayit Vagan. Spending the past few days here has been absolutely beautiful. The views is breathtaking - I wake up and from her balcony, I see the entire city of Jersualem. I didn't need to ask which direction I should be facing when I pray. Walking around this area, all you see are religious couples and families, talking Hebrew and French mostly, little kids playing in the street (I saw a little girl, she must have been no more than four years old, playing in the street by herself and my first instinct was to say - where's her mother?? I guess that's the Canadian in me...), and there are tons and tons of yeshivas. Everyone I look is another one, filled with the beautiful voices of people learning.

I spent shabbat with my sister and we woke up on Friday morning to start cooking. I was pretty hopeful that in the battle of Vicky vs. jetlag I would win. But around 4 pm on Friday I literally could not help but close my eyes. I was reading a book on my sister's bed and I got one of those awful book imprints on your face. After sleeping for an hour, we went to this nice Carlebach synagogue nearby. It was completely packed and definitely one of those shuls you have to visit on a trip to Israel (though I probably wouldn't go more than once - too busy and no room to breathe!) In the middle of dinner, I got that fatigue feeling again and I went to sleep at 8 pm. I thought I was so tired that I would fall asleep until mid day Saturday, but I woke up at 4 am and couldn't go back to sleep - the sounds of the birds chirping and the sunshine streaming through the window forced me to wake up.

After shabbat, I met up with some Montreal friends who I haven't seen in awhile, which was really nice, although I did discover that Americans in Israel are soo annoying! Walking around ben yehuda at night is just filled with American seminary girls and boys who yell and scream and make me want to pretend I am Israeli so I can feel better than them.

Right now, I'm about to go move into the Hebrew U dorms - I'm really excited to finally be settled, not living out of a suitcase, and to meet my roommates and start my new life here.

Civil Rights, or Lack Thereof.

Living in this democratic country called Canada, we are all guaranteed governmental protection, public health care, access to free education and a little thing we like to call civil and political rights. Of course, these are considered privileges - privileges we are able to keep if we pay our dues to the government, by paying taxes and upholding Canadian law. Included in these civil and political rights are the right to freedom of speech, of thought, of religion and many more. We can speak out against our government due to the very nature of the country's democratic character.

I've always wondered where these rights end. When does my right to speak and be free in Canada triumph other rights I may have, if that's possible? My right to freedom does not allow me to negate others' rights to protection. There is a limit, and it's easy to hit it.

When I visited the Israeli consulate last Friday to get a student visa so I can study in Israel this semester, I was told that I did not qualify for a visa - after all, how could they give me a visa to a country I was already a citizen of? Apparently, since my dad left Lebanon during the Muslim-Christian civil war in 1975, fleeing to Israel, he had made aliyah. He stayed for only a short period of time and immigrated to Canada where he now lives. Despite being born and raised in Canada, and never having lived in Israel for more than a month, I am considered Israeli by the sheer virtue of my father's decision (although truthfully, he really did not even know he was making aliyah. He only intended to leave a war and start a new life and never really planned to stay in Israel that long). I was a little shocked when they handed me army exemption papers and told me I had to settle my army status right away. Would they even be allowed to draft me into the army - a girl who has never even lived in Israel but is considered an Israeli citizen born abroad?

I tried to refuse my Israeli citizenship. I told them I had no desire to be an Israeli citizen at this point in my life but apparently, that doesn't matter. I am Israeli, whether I like it or not, according to Israeli citizenship laws. My kids, however, won't be Israeli - this rule only applies to the first generation, my dad's next of kin.

It's not that I'm not proud of Israel. Israel has done many wonderful things for the world and the majority of technology that we spend our days using were probably developed in Israel. However, I don't want the hassles that come with Israeli citizenship. I want to travel to Arab countries without worrying they will find out I am also Israeli. I want to work in politics without being immediately labeled as biased because of my half-citizenship. And I don't want to worry about figuring out my military status.

I believe I have the right to choose my own citizenship. Had I been born in Israel, I wouldn't be able to claim this right. But I wasn't. I have lived at the same address for the past twenty years of my life and my father has only lived in Israel for maybe a maximum of two years. These details should automatically render my 'citizenship' meaningless. How can they claim I'm a citizen for a country I've only visited twice?

It's an interesting aspect of Israeli law and I'm personally curious as to why it is so. Why is it that Israel wishes to claim people like me are citizens of Israel? Is there some benefit for them to increase the number of citizens they can claim to have?

So as of now, I'm not signing up for an Israeli passport. They can claim to force it on me, but I'm pretty sure they need my signature to process that document. I'll let you know what happens when I get to customs.