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The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project

July 16, 2023 Webinar on the Film My Tree

Posted on July 8, 2023 by Admin

Event Date: July 16, 2023

Time: 3 pm ET/ 2 pm CT/ 12 noon PT

Using children’s donations collected via “little blue boxes,” the Jewish National Fund has planted more than 250 million trees in Israel/Palestine. Ostensibly to “make the desert bloom,” the planting has radically altered the land’s biodiversity. My Tree follows filmmaker Jason Sherman’s journey to find the tree planted in his name on the occasion of his bar mitzvah. When he discovers that “his” tree is in a forest covering up a Palestinian village destroyed in 1967 – one of many forests hiding scores of destroyed villages – he seeks to learn the motivations behind JNF’s tree-planting enterprise and to understand his own culpability.

Watch the film for free at your convenience; Join the Q&A Discussion

Jason Sherman: Jewish Canadian playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker

Seth Morrison: Treasurer, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, publicly resigned from Washington D.C. Board of Jewish National Fund

Mazin Qumsiyeh: author, founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) at Bethlehem University

Iymen Chehade (moderator): Professor of Middle Eastern History, Columbia College; founder, Uprising Theater

You must register to get the free film link and to participate in the Q&A discussion: Tinyurl.com/VFHL-July2023

Watch the Trailers: Tinyurl.com/VFHL-MyTreeTrailer

The July 2023 Online Film Salon is Co-Sponsored by:

Kehilla Community Synagogue Middle East Peace Committee

Israel-Palestine Mission Network, PCUSA

SUPPORTER Organizations: Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ♦ Episcopal Peace Fellowship-Palestine Israel Network ♦ Churches for Middle East Peace ♦ Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace ♦ Quaker Palestine Israel Network ♦ Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East ♦ Indiana Center for Middle East Peace ♦ Disciples Palestine-Israel Network ♦ Virginia Coalition for Human Rights ♦ Mennonite Palestine Israel Network ♦ Friends of Sabeel North America ♦ Center for Jewish Nonviolence ♦ United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network ♦ Northern New Jersey Jewish Voice for Peace ♦ Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service ♦ Kairos Puget Sound Coalition ♦ Pax Christi USA ♦

Watch Farha on Netflix

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Admin

Farha tells the true story of a young Palestinian girl surviving the Nakba in 1948 by hiding in a small, locked storage room.

This eye-opening and heartbreaking film is based on the experiences of a friend of writer and director Darin Sallam’s mother, and shows events tragically familiar to Palestinians around the world.

Farha is under attack for accurately portraying the horror of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

More on the film, history, and opposition

Farha Vividly Depicts Palestinian History Through The Eyes Of A Teenager

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Admin

Toronto International Film Festival Review

FARHA_Trailer_English subtitle from Picture Tree International on Vimeo.

Jared Mobarak, The Film Stage, September 11, 2021

The text reads: Palestine, 1948. That’s all you need to know to understand what’s coming. A year earlier marked the start of the Palestinian Civil War between Jewish and Arab residents after the United Nations recommended the land’s separation in a Jewish and Arab state. Israel declared independence in May of 1948 and, as some history books describe it, a mass exodus arose to render about half the nation’s pre-WWII Arab population (700,000) into refugees without a home. To simply call it an exodus, however, is misleading. Most of these people didn’t choose to leave as a means of finding settlement elsewhere. They were driven out by Israeli military forces who in turn destroyed villages and murdered so-called “rebel forces” in an ethnic cleansing that continues today.

As anyone following the news knows, using the term genocide for what happened / is happening has always been a hotly disputed topic thanks to some people’s inability to separate anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism. And being that America is a huge Israeli ally, advocating for the lives and freedoms of a Palestinian people who had their land stolen from them—only to subsequently be treated like second-class citizens upon the land they were given (that was then also stolen despite agreements made)—is likely to get you labeled the latter. We’re accordingly taught to dismiss Palestinians as terrorists like many other Muslim groups. It’s thus important for Arab artists and historians to dare combat that stereotype by telling their stories too. Darin J. Sallam’s drama Farha is one.

In it she details the real-life tale of Radiyyeh, a 14-year-old girl whose village was destroyed during the Al-Nakba (Catastrophe). Names are changed and events dramatized, but it remains the same tale this young woman told upon reaching Syria that’s endured for generations. At its start is our introduction to the renamed Farha’s (Karam Taher) headstrong teenage rebellious streak in telling her Quran teacher that women should be worrying less about marriage and more about education. Her cousin / best friend Farida (Tala Gammoh) is lucky enough to live in the city to experience the latter while life in the village leaves Farha with many fewer options. Her father (Ashraf Barhom’s Abu Farha) is their mayor, however, and thus has means to send her too.

They’re living in tumultuous times, though. The British are leaving and the Arab villages have no means of defending themselves from the progressing Israeli forces coming to fill that void. On one hand Abu Farha wants his daughter to remain close as they await the Arab League’s promised assistance. On the other, he knows her potential and desire to learn could ultimately help them all in the long run. There just isn’t enough time to get affairs in order before the explosions start. Suddenly Farha is left with a choice of her own: flee with Farida’s family north or stay by her father’s side. Why she picks the latter comes with additional motivation, but it hardly matters once desperation leads her to being locked inside the pantry.

This is how we experience the horrors of what went on: through the cracks of a wooden door and gaps between stones. Abu Farha says he’ll return for her, but that’s hardly a guarantee. And while hiding in this room will keep her safe (and fed), the prospect of what she might have to face with only a dagger left behind for protection remains unknown. Sallam’s film turns from the hopeful sun-drenched days of a hillside community thinking towards the future to a claustrophobic thriller forcing Farha (and us) to helplessly watch the present depravity of war. Whether smoke from fires set to burn the village down or Israeli soldiers cornering fleeing Arabs with unprovoked malice, what she witnesses will invariably alter her entire outlook on humanity.

Sallam pulls no punches in her depictions of the callous nature of this endless battle in the Middle East. It’s no coincidence that she shows young boys chasing after the British with toy gun slingshots, propelling tiny stones at the soldiers before cutting to a scene between Abu Farha and his brother-in-law (Ali Suliman’s Abu Walid) where they discuss the audacity of those pretending like they possess an armed militia. It’s no different from today with Israelis firing into crowds of unarmed civilians because someone threw a can. Oppressors will utilize whatever excuses are at their disposal to continue their oppression; their zealots will believe the flimsiest of them if doing so serves their needs. Everything is a weapon for those itching to respond with deadly force.

I doubt the obvious allusions to Holocaust films (sans concentration camps) are unintentional, either. We’ve seen countless depictions of Jewish Europeans hiding from Nazis as the Third Reich stormed into homes with impunity to line people up against the wall and organize a firing squad. Farha becomes that innocent made to watch as people who look and talk like her are butchered feet away. That one would happen so soon after the other is therefore something to contemplate and discuss; one people’s suffering should never validate the conscious acts of causing another people to suffer in similar ways. As the broken Arabic of loudspeakers states that all Arabs must vacate or be killed in their homes, however, nothing about this diaspora’s commencement was ever voluntary.

Farha‘s success is thus predicated on our ability to watch what unfolds and believe its veracity. That will probably be a tall ask for those who deny Palestinians their right to be angry about what was done to them. Hopefully seeing it through the eyes of a child will help sway hearts and minds to reality, though. First-time actor Taher is fantastic in the eponymous role, struggling with allegiance to her village and dreams of enjoying the city. Just because one wishes to escape their simple life doesn’t mean they aren’t intrinsically bonded to it. We leave for our educations in the knowledge that home will remain, either as a time capsule or a siren calling us back. For too many Palestinians today, returning to theirs became impossible.

Farha premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Jared Mobarak is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic for The Film Stage, Art Director for the Buffalo, NY film series Cultivate Cinema Circle, and member of OFCS and GWNYFCA. You can follow his cinematic viewing habits at Letterboxd.

Farha ‘Smear Campaign’ Targets Netflix Film Depicting Nakba

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Admin

Activists say hundreds of spam accounts are giving low ratings and bad reviews for the film on rating platforms

Many of the accounts giving Farha low ratings on IMDb were newly created (TaleBox)

Nadda Osman, Middle East Eye, 2 December 2022

Hundreds of spam accounts have left negative reviews of the film Farha on the movie rating site IMDb, in what appears to be an organised campaign.

Streaming on Netflix and set during the Nakba of 1948, the film revolves around a teenage girl who watches Zionist militias kill her entire family, including a baby.

Jordanian director Darin Sallam says her debut feature is based on actual events, which she first heard about from her Palestinian father.

The film has been slammed by Israeli officials but Palestinians reject such criticisms, arguing that abuses like those depicted in the movie are documented to have happened.

Following the Israeli censure, the film’s ratings have dropped dramatically on IMDb, one of the internet’s most popular film review sites.

On 1 December, the film’s ratings went from 7.2 to 5.8 in a matter of hours, in what many activists and campaigners have called a targeted campaign.

According to activists, many of the negative reviews appeared to have come from the same source, containing similar comments, such as calling the film “one-sided” or a “big lie”.

Netflix’s Farha: Palestinians bemused by Israeli anger over Nakba film
Read More »

One review, titled “propaganda and fantasy”, awarded the film one star and called it an “over emotional drama”.

Former Al Jazeera journalist and influencer Ahmed Shihab-Eldin says the negative reviews were part of an orchestrated effort to discredit the film and stop people from seeing it.

“The pacing of the posts reveals it was co-ordinated,” he told Middle East Eye.

“With each passing hour, dozens and dozens of vapid and vile reviews would appear, making wild accusations trashing the film. It was clear people had not seen the film, and only wanted to damage its reputation,” he added.

According to Shihab-Eldin, many of the accounts posting negative reviews of the film were newly created.

He says that around 1,000 negative reviews suddenly appeared on the website during a 24-hour period, which contained “inflammatory and hateful language”.

At the time of publication, the average review rating of Farha on the IMDb page sat at 8.1, suggesting the website had removed inauthentic ratings.

Middle East Eye has contacted the website for comment.

A painful history

Earlier, Israeli officials including Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s far-right, outgoing finance minister, condemned the film, saying: “It’s crazy that Netflix decided to stream a movie whose whole purpose is to create a false pretence and incite against Israeli soldiers.”

While the Nakba is well documented, it does not feature prominently in Israeli public discourse.

More than 700,000 Palestinians were either expelled or fled during the events that preceded the establishment of Israel.

In pictures: Palestinian villages before the Nakba
Read More »

Many left at gunpoint and others left after hearing about atrocities committed by Israeli soldiers. The most famous of these include the massacres at Tantura and Deir Yassin.

A number of Israeli historians, including the University of Exeter academic Ilan Pappé, have written extensively about Israeli atrocities in the lead-up to the state’s establishment.

Shihab-Eldin said that the smear campaign against the film is part of an ongoing pattern with other Palestinian films and stories.

“For too long, any time Palestinians share their own stories, that affirm our existence, our humanity, it is immediately targeted by Israel… it’s as debilitating to deal with as it is destructive,” he added.

According to Shihab-Eldin, the goal of the campaign is to silence Palestinian voices and discourage them from telling stories about the Palestinian experience.

Harassment and bullying

Sallam said that she was moved to direct the film after being told the story by her father at a young age, and says it was based on real incidents.

“I’m not afraid to tell the truth,” she said in a media interview in 2021, when the film premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

Continue reading →

December 11, 2022
Film: Come and See; Go and Tell

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Admin

Online Film & Panel Discussion
2:00 pm Central

So many people travel, take tours, and make pilgrimages to the “Holy Land” each year. What are the ethical, political, and personal implications of a journey to holy sites surrounded by 30-foot-high concrete walls, where soldiers patrol the streets and residents live under military occupation?

Three recent, short documentaries present a variety of perspectives through the eyes of people living there today. Post-film discussion features Rifat Kassis of Kairos Palestine, Palestinian-American Sam Bahour, and Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon of Churches for Middle East Peace.

Complete info and registration here

December 6, 2022
Palestine Solidarity Walk and Film Night at UW

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Admin

Walk: 4:30 pm, meet at the Memorial Union; bring Palestinian flags, wear your kuffiyehs and the red, white, black and green colors of Palestine.

Film Night: 6:30 pm in Grainger Hall, Room TBD.

Free and Open to the public; sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine-UW Madison. Updated information here

April 25, 2022: Wisconsin Premiere of the Film Boycott

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Admin

Just Vision’s new documentary, Boycott, will have its Wisconsin Premiere at the Milwaukee Film Festival on Monday, April 25 at 5:45pm. Boycott follows the stories of a news publisher, an attorney and a speech therapist, who, when forced to choose between their jobs and their political beliefs, launch legal battles that expose an attack on freedom of speech across America.

The film traces the impact of state legislation passed in 33 states – including Wisconsin – designed to penalize individuals and companies that choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record. A legal thriller with “accidental plaintiffs” at the center of the story, Boycott is a bracing look at the far-reaching implications of anti-boycott legislation and an inspiring tale of everyday Americans standing up to protect our rights in an age of shifting politics and threats to freedom of speech.

November 8 – 11
The Other Israel Film Festival

Posted on November 7, 2021 by Admin

The Other Israel Film Festival
Streaming two films from Breaking the Silence

The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation
The latest from Director and Breaking the Silence Executive Board member Avi Mograbi has been making the rounds at film festivals around the world. Based on testimonies of former IDF soldiers and officers who served in the occupied territories since 1967, the film analyzes the various methods put in place to keep the occupied Palestinian population under control, as a case study in how to maintain a prolonged, and even perpetual, military regime.

This extraordinary journey from the birth of the occupation until today, told through first-hand accounts, is woven together through Mograbi’s outstanding storytelling, and is well worth watching for anyone interested in how the occupation came to be what it is today.

To see the film online, purchase a ticket through 10:45 pm Central on Nov. 11. (Use discount code BREOI21 for 20% off.)

Mission: Hebron
One of three shorts in the festival, this film is based on a series of interviews with Breaking the Silence testifiers who speak about their service in the city of Hebron, the second largest Palestinian city in the West Bank with an Israeli settlement in its center. Together, they describe a horrifying yet mundane routine of manning checkpoints, invading homes, nighttime arrests, shooting protesters and so on. This fast-moving short film, directed by the renowned Israeli director Rona Segal, has been featured at film festivals around the world including the highly prestigious IDFA Festival in the Netherlands, and won the best short documentary prize at the Jerusalem Film Festival. It has recently been longlisted for an Academy Award.

Admission is free, but register before 10:45 pm Central on Nov. 11.

September 13, 2021
Arab Americans: We’re Not White, a Talk by Amer Zahr

Posted on September 11, 2021 by Admin

Register

Amer Zahr, founder and producer of the annual 1001 Laughs Ramallah Comedy Festival, is a rising star in both the US and the Middle East. Amer is an Arab-American comedian, speaker, political activist, writer, and adjunct professor at the University of Detroit, Mercy School of Law. “Comedy is my form of protest,” says Amer!

Join us for a conversation between Amer Zahr and Nevine El Nossery, Director of the Middle East Studies Program. We will discuss Amer’s upbringing as an Arab American, how comedy and law intersect, and how it is possible to reconcile multiple identities. We will also talk about how American society and politics affect the lives of immigrants in general and Arab-Americans in particular.

We encourage you to watch Amer Zahr’s documentary, We’re Not White, before his talk on September 13. It’s a very thought-provoking educational resource for talking to students about intersectional matters related to race, ethnicity, and other aspects of identity.

Watch My Neighbourhood, the story of Sheikh Jarrah

Posted on August 2, 2021 by Admin

A remarkable, nonviolent struggle against settlement expansion in East Jerusalem

Watch the full movie

Just Vision

My Neighbourhood

Mohammed El Kurd is a Palestinian boy growing up in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in the heart of East Jerusalem. When Mohammed turns 11, his family is forced to give up part of their home to Israeli settlers, who are leading a campaign of court-sanctioned evictions to guarantee Jewish control of the area.

Shortly after their displacement, Mohammed’s family and other residents begin holding unarmed protests against the evictions, determined not to lose their homes for good. In a surprising turn, they are quickly joined by scores of Israeli supporters who are horrified to see what is being done in their name. Among them is Jewish West Jerusalem resident Zvi Benninga and his sister Sara, who develop a strong relationship with Mohammed and his family as they take on a leading role in organizing the protests.

Through their personal stories, My Neighbourhood goes beyond the sensational headlines that normally dominate discussions of Jerusalem and captures voices rarely heard, of those striving for a future of equality and pluralism in the city.

My Neighbourhood follows Mohammed as he comes of age in the midst of unrelenting tension and remarkable cooperation in his backyard. Highlighting Mohammed’s own reactions to the highly volatile situation, reflections from family members and other evicted residents, accounts of Israeli protesters and interviews with Israeli settlers, the film chronicles the resolve of a neighbourhood and the support it receives from the most unexpected of places.

My Neighbourhood is directed and produced by Rebekah Wingert-Jabi, who documented Mohammed’s story over two years, and acclaimed filmmaker Julia Bacha. It is the latest production by Just Vision, an award-winning team of Palestinian, Israeli, North and South American filmmakers, journalists and human rights advocates dedicated to telling the stories of Israelis and Palestinians working nonviolently to achieve freedom, dignity, equality and human security in the region.