LETTER FROM THE FOUNDER

I founded the Other Israel Film Festival to serve as a platform for New Yorkers to learn about the culture, identity and the daily life of Israeli Arab citizens. This festival will be unique - it is not about the conflict - it is not about taking sides - this festival is about people. How much the Arab citizens are a part of Israeli life was brought home to me this past December visiting the Hadassah Hospital in Jersualem. I had a long conversation with one of the doctors and I assumed I was speaking to a Jew until he handed me his card and I understood that he was an Arab. He must have noticed my surprise because he laughed and said "if you lived in Israel, you would know that half the doctors and nurses here in Hadassah are Arabs."

Through the Other Israel Film Festival, Arab Israelis who have long been a part of Israel's Art and film scene will bring Israeli Arab perspectives and culture to an audience that has never heard this voice before. This is a unique opportunity to showcase the accomplishments of Israeli Arabs and for festival goers to meet Arab actors and directors as well as the Jewish Israelis with whom they work and colaborate with great success. There will be Q&A sessions and panel discussions - as well as other opportunites to learn and mingle. Film can be a powerful tool, it can change perception, evoke emotions about subjects the audience has never seen before. What film can do is provide the human dimension that extends beyond the daily news bulletins. Film can explore the deeper meaning of everyday living.

I care deeply about Israel and its future. Israel's future lies in how, among other things, it chooses to deal with its Arab minority, which now comprises 20% of its population, a percentage that is likely to grow. Israeli Arabs are ordinary people who lead their lives much like the Jewish Israelis among whom they live. In 1948 there were 140,000 Arabs in Israel today there are 1,600,000 - therefore most of Israel's Arabs have grown up in a Jewish State, and more importantly, in a democracy. Growing up in a democratic Jewish state has without any doubt shaped the cultural and national identity of Israel's Arab citizens - who know no other home.

I hope you will join us during the week for a cultural experience which will offer you new knowledge and wider perspective.

Sincerely,
Carole Zabar
Founder