Today reading the New York Times Magazine I saw a quote by Jihan Sadat who quite boldly and correctly remarked that the Palestinians were not like Egyptian but like Israelis, very educated, very intellectual and the interests and personalities of the Israelis were incredibly similar.
This is something I have noticed over and over since my adventures creating The Other Israel Film Festival. Something about living in Israel for 60 years has affected the Palestinian psyche. Even the Arabic of Israeli Arabs is something to behold, there is so much Hebrew in Israeli Arab speech if you didn’t know Hebrew you wouldn’t understand what is being said. On the other hand there are 3,000 Arabic words in Hebrew including the ubiquitous Yallah.
Nobody embodies how Arab and Israeli culture and people hood have blended more than the 30 something generation of Arab Israelis- who want to part of the scene. Perhaps the premiere example, Ibtisam Marrana, the Arab Israeli woman director who has directed 7 documentaries where she presents the life she grew up in and the life she wants to flee. The question is to what is she fleeing.
Ibtisam will be with us at the JCC in Manhattan the end of the month. Ibtisam was a guest of the Festival this past November. She is the embodiment of the Israel persona- Outspoken, Chutspadik, sure of her self to a fault and smart smart smart. We are hosting a number of events with her and screening some of her movies. you can come and hear her views (which are always interesting to say the least).
Catch you later,
Carole
A FEW WORDS ON THE ARAB – PALESTINIANS WHO LIVE IN ISRAEL AND HAVE TO COPE WITH THE PRESENT SITUATION. THEY ARE CAUGHT BETWEEN THEIR LOYALTY TO THE STATE AND THEIR PEOPLE, A CONFLICT HARD ENOUGH IN NORMAL TIMES, LET ALONE DURING TIMES OF WAR.
MOST OF THE ARABS IN ISRAEL ARE LOYAL TO THE STATE. THEY FEEL HELPLESS, THOUGH, NOT BEING ABLE TO HELP THEIR BRETHEREN ACROSS THE GREEN LINE, AND FRUSTRATED BECAUSE OF THEIR STATUS IN ISRAEL.
THE ARABS, 20 PERCENT OF THE TOTAL POPULATION IN ISRAEL, ARE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST IN MOST WALKS OF LIFE: LAND, EDUCATION, JOBS. THEY LIVE IN THE ONLY DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST, VOTE FOR THEIR DELEGATES IN THE KNESSET, BUT FEEL THAT DEMOCRACY IN ISRAEL IS ONLY FOR THE JEWS.
HOWEVER, NO ARAB ISRAELI IS WILLING TO GIVE UP THEIR ISRAELI CITIZENSHIP AND MOVE TO ONE OF THE NEIBOURING ARAB STATES, LEAST OF ALL TO THE TERRITORIES RULED BY THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY. THEY PREFARE ISRAEL, WITH ITS MUCH HIGHER LIVING STANDARD, AND DEMOCRACY – HERE THEY ARE AT LIBERTY TO SAY AND WRITE WHATEVER THEY WANT.
WE, THE JEWS, THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE IN ISRAEL, SHOULD DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER, TO GRANT THE ARAB ISRAELIES THEIR RIGHTS, IN ORDER TO STOP THE DISCRIMINATION. HOWEVER, THE MALAISE WILL NOT STOP UNTIL THERE IS PEACE BETWEEN JEWS AND PALESTINIANS, AND UNTIL THEY RECOGNIZE OUR RIGHT TO LIVE AT PEACE AS A JEWISH STATE. THIS IS OUR RIGHT JUST AS THEIR RIGHT IS TO HAVE A STATE OF THEIR OWN.
I spent this Christmas in Israel, it is my husband's busiest season so I figured he wouldn't miss me if I went to Israel for a week or so and I would be able to see my friends old and new and meet with some people who we at the festival have started to work with. During these meetings I looked forward to outlining some collaborations for the coming festival next November. The visit did not work out at all as I expected.
December 28th, the fourth day of my visit, everything changed. I was sitting in Mohammad Bakri's warm kitchen in the Galilee, drinking coffee with his wife, when his son Salleh (of The Band's Visit) entered the kitchen saying, "Israel has invaded Gaza."
We all flew to the TV and stayed glued all day. From that moment on, my entire trip changed. My hopes to witness co-existence were clouded by horrific images, cynical politicians and non-stop discouraging news reports. What is hardest to deal with is the mood of the country. Despite the fact that all of the violence took place in a very cornered area of the south, the entire country feels like they are in the trenches, and it is at times like these when the tension between the Arab citizens and the Jews of Israel can be cut with a knife.
There is no doubt that everyone is a victim here. And there is no doubt that the Arab Citizens of Israel are caught smack in the middle. Most Arab Citizen's appose Hammas, but at the same time appose the war. The fact that Arab citizens appose the war does not mean that they are not loyal to the state. But this war reminds them that they are not equals and brings fear to their existence as equals in Israel.
The next day, I left Mohammad's for Tel Aviv; I left the Galil and went to Tel Aviv where life went on as usual. From there to Jerusalem where Yitzi and I visited Sayed Kashua in his new apartment (Very nice indeed) met his wife and very adorable children. Oddly enough considering the three very political columns that Kashua has written since the war, he didn't mention Gaza at all. We met with many people from the Israeli film scene. The days were crowded with meetings and took my mind off Gaza.
Then due to go home- I lost my passport. You cannot imagine what I went through to get a new temporary passport. Between Israeli security and American bureaucracy I almost gave up and briefly thought of buying an apartment in Tel Aviv telling my husband to move Zabar's to TA and just giving up on the new passport. That seemed an extreme reaction.
At last everything fell into place, and I stood before the clerk who would give me my new passport when he looked curiously at my papers, "Zabar?" he asked with a serious look. "Any relation to Zabars?" I relaxed and told him it was my husband's store. The clerk went on to praise the delicacies that are a required part of all of his visits to the States. But then he stated: "But what really impresses me is the cultural work that Zabar's does and when I enquired "What cultural work"? His answer was "The Other Israel film festival." Suddenly had my bleak mood changed? Through this film festival we can reach people and make a change. Now, more than ever this festival is crucial. Our voices can be heard!
We asked our festival participants to contribute their thoughts on the war in Gaza. On our next blog we will share with you the voices and hearts of our festival participants- we would love to hear what you have to say.
Catch you later,
C
Dear All, WE DID IT!
The second year of Other Israel was successful beyond my wildest dreams. My dream was to have Jews, non-Jews, Arabs, and non-Arabs talking and laughing, asking where to get the best haircut and where were the cool jazz clubs. My dream was for Arabs and Jews to be fighting about Arab identity and never worrying once about offending the other guy because they were arguing as PEOPLE not as symbols. It all happened.
Opening night - people who never watch a soccer game found themselves mesmerized by the charismatic Abbas Suan; My son, who is sports crazy, enjoyed the opening night film to no end. Few of the people in the audience that night had been aware of the blatant racism that exists in Israeli soccer and fewer knew about Abbas Suan who perseveres his dream of “making it” in the Jewish State.
On Friday night we had a wonderful dinner with the New Israel Fund’s New Generations group and I left at 11pm watching Palestinian Israelis and Jews, American and Israeli smiling at each other, flirting and talking non-stop (as we Semites are known to do) and in general having a great time.
The film “Bridge Over the Wadi”, the story of one man’s child who starts school and attends the Hand in Hand school in Wadi ara which is half Arab and half Jewish teachers and students alike. The director Barak Heyman who left us all riveted made this courageous film that left most people both elated at the progress these schools have achieved and discouraged to some degree by how intractable some of the problems are. That should be no surprise after 60 years. But again that is what we are about. Showing the reality of Israel of all of its citizens.
Our Closing Night film was a film called “Heart of Jenin” a documentary about a most remarkable Palestinian from the town of Jenin in the West Bank whose son had been accidentally killed by an Israeli soldier and who had the courage to then donate his son’s organs to children inside the “green line”. Some of these children were Palestinian Israelis and some Jewish Israelis. This remarkable man now runs a Palestinian JCC in the heart of Jenin.
We celebrated the poet Mahmoud Darwish and had the participation of people who reached out to us to offer artistic accompaniment to his poetry. This included a most moving recitation of one of Darwish’s poems by the Palestinian Israeli actor Ziad Bakri, he and his cousin Alex came to stay with us during the festival we had a non-stop party. Thank you Ziad and Alex.
See you all next year,
Carole
P.S. - More blogs to come please write to me I want to hear from you!
Dear All,
I am sitting at my computer in a state of euphoria. It is not just that this wonderful man was elected president but that during his campaign while we heard some rustlings of racism- his race played no great role in the campaign or in his election. I believe that people throughout our great country saw him, as the person who could bring desperately needed change to our country.
It was with great disappointment that I read that only three countries in the world had backed McCain and unfortunately Israel was among them. The myth in Israel that only the most hawkish president can be good for Israel is just that, a MYTH. Like America, Israel is desperate for change.
I hope my festival will make a step toward what Barak Obama showed us is possible- to view human beings for who and what they are and not through the prism of a LABEL. Arab citizens have contributed to the state of Israel and continue to contribute despite an astonishing figure of 75% of Israelis who want them transferred out of the country.
Encourage your friends to come. The more people see human faces the faster democracy can proceed apace in my beloved, beleaguered Israel. Catch you later. C
