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We have a winner: Documentary on Gaza invasion outdoes the rest at California film fest

May 5, 2012 By 2 Comments

One week ago, a documentary film literally from within the invasion of Gaza debuted at the 13th annual Newport Beach Film Festival in California. The Festival announced its award winners on Friday. The War Around Us proudly earned the Jury Award for Best Feature Documentary.

This is amazing news for two main reasons. First, aside from the fact that this is a major achievement, the film brought one of humanity’s greatest injustices to the big screen, a feat much greater than any award a documentary can ever earn. It brought war and its associated chaos to an American public that is so unaccustomed to experiencing the day to day realities of foreign invasion. Second, the fact that the film won such a prestigious award indicates that it was received well, that it was produced with quality, that it ultimately got its point across.

The film documents the experiences of the only two foreign journalists who were able to cover Israel’s twenty-two day assault on the Gaza Strip. It hasn’t yet been released to the public but I encourage you to visit the website and sign up for updates. I know I’ll be looking forward to the day when the film is distributed through DVD. A trailer is provided below.

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Sami Kishawi

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‘The War Around Us’: Gaza invasion hits the big screen at Newport Beach Film Fest

April 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

From the director of Occupation 101 comes a feature film recounting the experiences of two foreign journalists who covered Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip in 2008-2009. The War Around Us debuts this Sunday, April 29, at the 2012 Newport Beach Film Festival in Newport Beach, CA.

Ayman Mohyeldin and Sherine Tadros were the only two foreign journalists who managed to provide live coverage of Operation Cast Lead. Produced and directed by Abdallah Omeish, this heart-wrenching film presents honest insight into the pressure Mohyeldin and Tadros felt for doing what CNN, BBC, and other news outlets couldn’t or chose not to do.

Here’s a trailer for the film:

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Rafeef Ziadah: ‘Cultivate hope’ for Hana Al-Shalabi (with lyrics)

March 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Rafeef Ziadah, a Canadian-Palestinian spoken word artist who received wide acclaimed for her piece “We teach life, sir“, is out with a new piece in honor of Hana Al-Shalabi’s heroic sacrifice.

Today marks day 41 in Al-Shalabi’s hunger strike. Protesting Israel’s policy of indefinitely holding Palestinians under “administrative detention”, Al-Shalabi remains persistent in her will to see freedom.

Ziadah recites this piece over music by Phil Monsour. The official lyrics can be found below the video.

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[Read more...]

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A Lebanese-Palestinian barber shop story

March 17, 2012 By 1 Comment

Finals week finished and as part of my tradition to return to normalcy, I went for a refreshing haircut at Mike’s in northwest Chicago, as far from campus as I could get. The owner was out and an elderly man filled his place. Having been a regular at Mike’s for years now, I wondered who this man was and how he fit into the medley of young barbers representing all shades of brown. His seat was empty so he called me over.

I quickly learned that he’s the owner’s father, a veteran barber from Beirut who, in just thirty minutes, managed to share so many memories and even more wisdom that I found it only appropriate to jot this experience down.

Wielding sharp shears in one hand and a thick comb in the other, he told me of his early days in Jaffa. He would spend hours overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in all its calm glory, watching children not much younger than him wade out into the dense water and ride the miniature incoming waves.

He traveled to Gaza regularly to visit his aunts and uncles and has fond memories of the days he spent in Mokhayyam al-Shaati’, a refugee camp in the heart of Gaza City right along the coast. The ports were open at that time and he would watch boats unload their cargo freely. Although small and rocky, the mina saw its fair share of action. Even smugglers found the port to be a useful leg in their journeys moving cars and furniture through the Middle East. [Read more...]

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A block print for Hana Shalabi

March 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Guest contribution by Maureen Murphy

I made this print to honor the call being made by Palestinian human rights groups to stand in solidarity with hunger striking Palestinian political prisoner Hana Shalabi on International Women’s Day. Hana, who is being held by Israel without charge or trial under administrative detention, has been on hunger strike for nearly a month and says she will not end her strike until she is released.

There are seven Palestinian women currently in Israeli detention. Read more about them and the calls for solidarity with women prisoners here: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/international-womens-day-stand-palestinian-women-prisoners

Israel has arrested and detained Palestinians throughout its history in an attempt to break their will and repress their liberation movement. I can think of no better way to mark International Women’s Day than showing solidarity with Palestinian women who have sacrificed the little freedom they have under occupation. We can show solidarity by taking action to put pressure on Israel to release women prisoners, and educating others about their situation, and above all else, working to end US aid to Israel. [Read more...]

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Unison

March 8, 2012 By 7 Comments

Guest contribution by Karimah Al-Helew

Dear World,

I just wanted to tell you that I love you. Please Smile. I am a person. A Woman. A Muslim. A Cuban-Palestinian born in America, and I happen to express myself better in poetry—or at least I think I do. With that written, I ask you to stand in my shoes for a minute. Below is a piece, a snapshot, a taste of life in Palestine as it embraced me during my last visit. We live in a place where injustice is as evident as the sky is blue. But with every breath that we breathe, we can counter it, even if it is just by telling someone else’s story. Or our own.

Peace and thank you,
Karimah Al-Helew

Unison

There is so much to say, I can’t just say it
There is so much I’m feeling I can’t just explain it
I try to sift the words that swim in my mind
But I’m afraid of committing an injustice
And these words might be my everything, and still fall behind.
Too often I call upon the whisper of the winds to give my words weight. Ragged breathing—thoughts—my mind in its agitated state.
Recalling memories must become my best trait; for memories are bloodlines to narratives silenced by the Holy Lands woven fate
This is more than skin. Captured moments so deep
I want you to know, to be, to see.
May my eyes be windows and ease this heart in limbo
Even though,
Even though my memory is not photographic
I will work my hardest to paint sounds for you with absolutely no static. [Read more...]

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Red Bull shines light on Palestine’s fastest women

March 1, 2012 By 3 Comments

It’s not an everyday thing to see Palestinians covered in a positive light in a national action sports magazine, but when it does happen, it happens big.

Starting on page 56 of the March 2012 issue of the Red Bulletin is a feature article on the Speed Sisters, the first and only all-female Palestinian race team. Complete with family stories, quotes, nineteen vivid photographs, and a bold mention on the magazine’s front cover, the coverage captures the essence of Palestinian defiance through a team of female athletes challenging cultural norms and breaking down political barriers.

Here are a selection of quotes that I personally found interesting and cleverly insightful. Emphasis is my own.

“In the land-locked Palestinian territories where space is at a premium and there’s an absence of long stretches of checkpoint-free road, racers have to find suitable areas—a disused helipad in Bethlehem, a closed marketplace in Jenin—where the[y] can compete on speed tests on obstacle courses.”

Technically, Palestine isn’t land-locked, even by 1967 standards. The Mediterranean Sea runs along the Gaza Strip’s northwest border. But Israel maintains full military control over the seaspace so, in that sense, it’s locked off to Palestinians. It’s also a welcome surprise to see a mainstream publication acknowledge the density of Israel’s checkpoints in and around the West Bank. [Read more...]

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Gazan Knafa versus Nabulsi Knafa

February 28, 2012 By 4 Comments

Suha Najjar is on the ground in the Gaza Strip and taking full advantage of the sweet little knafa war that can be found there.

Knafa, which I take to be the Palestinian national dessert, is known around the world in the form that was first perfected in Nablus: one layer of fine orange noodle shreds or packed semolina on top of a layer of Nabulsi cheese. Admittedly, it makes for an excellent treat that draws attention and praise from Arab communities anywhere in the world.

But Gaza’s knafa, aptly named Knafa ‘Arabiya or Arabian Knafa, is a friendly rival to the Nabulsi knafa we know so well. This knafa is brown not orange and it lacks cheese. I can’t be sure if I even know what it’s made of but I do know that I have a personal preference for it. Although not as sweet as Nabulsi knafa, the more-wholesome flavor strikes the senses harder and, to many, offers a brief stint of normalcy in Gaza’s besieged reality.

Here’s a photograph taken by Suha. Nabulsi knafa is on the left and Gaza’s knafa is on the right. Which would you hail as the knafa king?

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Now it will be possible to look into Khader Adnan’s eyes as Israel’s apartheid wall falls

February 19, 2012 By 7 Comments

Nine weeks into Khader Adnan’s hunger strike, solidarity activists spray paint a stencil of Adnan’s face on Israel’s apartheid wall. Adnan was violently taken from his home near Jenin on December 17, 2011, and has since been held under administrative detention without being charged and without being allowed to exercise his right to a trial. Today marks his 65th day without food.

This photograph merits its own post. Palestine’s graffiti culture is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Typically, pieces commemorate social or political heroes: the newly-wed neighbor, Palestine’s martyred children, an Italian activist who put his neck on the line for Palestinian human and civil rights, or, in this case, a baker whose only “crime” was growing a beard, being Palestinian, and refusing to break.

The stencil on the left says “Free Khader Adnan” in Arabic. The one on the right was adapted from the popular banner icon made by @shishibean displaying Khader Adnan’s mouth as a lock.

In due time, when Israel’s apartheid wall is knocked down, I hope whoever is in charge of taking down this particular slab of concrete looks deeply into Adnan’s eyes and recognizes that his persistence and strong will played a overwhelming role in collapsing Israel’s institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians.

The photograph was originally found in an article about Randa Adnan and her support for her husband.

Filed Under: Activism, Arts & Culture, News Tagged With: , , ,

What it means to love under apartheid

February 13, 2012 By 1 Comment
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Valentine’s day is right around the corner and for many around the world, it’s a time to embrace the loved ones, the husbands and wives, the mothers and fathers, the sisters and brothers, the new friends and the old. But under Israel’s apartheid regime, there can’t be any of that. It’s against the law. It’s a demographic threat.

To highlight just how Israel’s segregationist policies affect the lives of everyday Palestinians, a team of socially-conscious community leaders headed by our very own Tanya Keilani launched a new project called “Love Under Apartheid“. The website features stories of Palestinians at home and abroad whose love lives, be it with their families or friends, have been forced to circumnavigate Israeli watchtowers and race-based ID checks. Sirene, for example, is a Palestinian citizen of Israel who fears she’ll be unable to visit her fiancé in Gaza.

Like most Palestinians, Israel’s policies have taken a negative toll on my ability to express my love, too. Rarely am I able to visit my family members in Gaza — to hug my aunts and uncles — since the borders are sealed to me. Finding a wife in the West Bank is virtually out of the picture seeing that, as a Gazan, Israeli authorities won’t let me through the checkpoints. “You have no reason to be here,” said a soldier to my family as we tried to visit the West Bank once in 2000. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Activism, Arts & Culture, Personal Tagged With: ,
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