Two years ago I submitted a panel on I/P for Netroots Nation. J Street also submitted one that year, focusing on I/P politics in this country. Neither was chosen, though a round table discussion of the issue was scheduled. There was not a single Palestinian or other Arab attending.
My attempt had one excellent outcome for me - I came to know a number of Palestinian-Americans and other Arabs as I hadn't before. I explored the Palestinian blogosphere, which changed me. I realized that all the assumptions changed with the point of view. There was so much I would never be able to take for granted again.
Last year the conference went international, with a noticeable number of Muslim attendees, and participants from a number of Arab countries. There were panels about the Arab Spring and about anti-Muslim problems in the US.
So this year I decided to submit a panel again. This time I chose to have people on both sides tell their own stories. I was inspired by The Troubadour's story and the diaries Tamar posted of her daughter's experiences in Israel and Palestine last summer, as well as others. I contacted a number of people I knew either in person or online about telling their stories and was pleased with the response. Several feel they cannot because doing so might be dangerous for some people involved, or because their jobs might be threatened by doing so. This is the reality of the subject.
Well, this past week I got the following notice:
First of all, thank you for taking the time and energy to submit a panel for consideration at Netroots Nation 2012.
Our selection committees have been working feverishly over the past month+ to narrow 400-plus submissions down to a smaller group that will be considered by our final selection committee. We're pleased to inform you that your panel submission (title listed below) has made it through the initial round and is being considered by our final selection committee, which will determine the 70 panels that will be presented at Netroots Nation. If you submitted more than one panel, you should receive one of these emails for each panel.
Making the Political Personal: Stories from Israel and Palestine
The only problem is, I am not sure of all my panelists. One recently had major surgery; another is going to visit Palestine at that time; another has a conflict with the timing. I am therefore looking for alternative panelists, especially one or two Palestinians or Palestinian-Americans. I have already put the word out with a number of individuals and groups. Now I am doing what has worked for me before - turning to this community.
I have many reasons to think a panel like this is important, and not just the obvious ones. The various purges or exits by choice of minorities from this site, including but not limited to Arabs and Jews, is symptomatic of something that bothers many of us. We find too few attempts to understand others' experiences. Enforcement of rules that try to keep us civil turns out to be spotty and frustrating for members, and I'm sure it's no picnic for the administrators either. Meteor Blades could deal with almost anything, I think, but when he stopped being the monitor things fell apart.
Last year the conference took steps to stop looking like a group of mostly male middle-aged white folks, and they were effective at least from my point of view. But the site has come to look more and more like that. We need to listen to each other more, and learn from each other, not just about new subjects, but about different kinds of experiences.
I stay because of the help we give each other, and for the many friends I have made here. I recently got a car from a Kossack, for heaven's sake. But I see more and more of those friends leaving.
I/P has always been a dysfunctional family within the larger community. But I come from a dysfunctional family so I guess I am used to it. Still, I often go for weeks or months staying out of the squabbles. Yet one of the symbols of this community, my love catcher quilt, includes messages from two of our Palestinian members.
I seem to have wandered afield, rambling as I tend to do. But my title for the panel, Making the Political Personal, comes from my belief that we have to do that before we can realize what it means that the personal is political. It's no accident that that phrase comes from the women's movement - we must realize that our stories have deep roots in the history of our world - but also that others' stories do also.
So if you are interested in participating, or think of someone else who might be, please let me know. NN12 will be in Providence, RI from June 7 to June 10. Panelists receive free registration for the conference, and perhaps the community could help with transportation and lodging. Final decisions about the panels chosen are expected the first week in April.