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by Atef Abu Saif

Discovery He discovered suddenly that Gaza had a sea-a big sea too. It was blue-like a dark-colored painting-and in the evening the sun resembled a giant orange plunging into the watery abyss as it disappeared into the sea.

Similarly, he discovered that a few kilometers from the shore a number of ships rode the waves at the heart of the sea and that their lights shone by night, like street lamps, illuminating a path through the sea. It was unmarked but afforded him an avenue to see far away.

He also discovered that the taxi fare from his home to the sea was merely a shekel, that the distance took five minutes by taxi and a quarter of an hour by foot, that the shore was only a few meters from his office, and that if he stood by its window he could imagine full well that he might touch the wave’s foam.

Read more: http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/still-life-scenes-in-gaza-time/#ixzz0frqEFd0l

2010 Platinum Bear for Free Speech

Filmmaker and Actor, Mohammad Bakri

Presented by the official friends of the 60th Berlinale

Download PDF here.

This past month, the State of Israel has attempted to silence Mohammad Bakri, one of our cinema’s greatest actors and documentary filmmakers, an essential figure of both Israeli and Palestinian cinema. In protest, a group of past Berlinale award winners, participants, and comrades have nominated Mr. Bakri for the 1st Annual 2010 Free Speech Bear Award. On February 19th, a screening of Mr. Bakri’s new film, Zohara,will be followed by a presentation of the award to Mr. Bakri –and a toast to free speech.

Seven years ago, after the invasion of the Israeli army into the refugee camp in Jenin, West Bank, Mohammad Bakri shot his film, Jenin Jenin. He was sued for defamation in Israeli court by several soldiers who were part of the invasion. He was censored by the Israeli censorship board for two years and, during the last seven years, has spent a great deal of time and money defending himself and the film. After Bakri won the legal suits, the soldiers decided to take the case to the Supreme Court. Recently, the State of Israel,in an unprecedented act, has decided to join the soldiers in their civil suit against Bakri.

In the eyes of the Israeli government, Mr. Bakri’s sin is his daring tobe both a member of the Palestinian people and a peace activist critical of Israel’s brutal occupation. His film Jenin Jenin, a passionate documentary about Israel’s military actions in Jenin, is only oneof many sources of evidence that Israel committed war crimes there in 2002. Detailed reports on this issue have been published by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and Israeli soldiers who served in Jenin have publicly boasted of committing acts which amount to war crimes.

This McCarthyite attempt to silence Mr. Bakri takes place against a backdrop of an urgent humanitarian crisis:the ongoing siege and imprisonment of 1.5 million human beings in a small enclave called Gaza. As long as Israel refuses to investigate its own crimes we can only salute a brave man like Mohammad Bakri who took his camera and tried to reveal the truth of what happened. And indeed, he revealed some terrible truths, but mostly he captured the trauma of witnesses and victims-a trauma that left Mr. Bakri’s soul wounded forever.

In the face of this new attempt to silence, criminalize and bankrupt Mr. Bakri, and in protest against the ongoing brutality of the occupation, we have come together to spontaneously nominate Mohammad Bakri as our 2010 Filmmaker of Free Speech, and pay due respect to his art and to Palestinian filmmaking. By this act, we are saying No! to cynical attempts by governments to silence great artists through dubious legal means… And saying Yes! to dialogue, free speech, and a lasting peace.

Signed by

The spectre of Jean Genet
A Prisoner of Love


Hany Abu-Assad, Paradise Now, Berlinale Competition 2005, Golden Globe 2006

Udi Aloni*, Forgiveness, Berlinale Panorama 2006, Woodstock Audience Award 2006

Saleh Bakri (actor), The Time That Remains, Cannes 2009

Simone Bitton, Rachel, Berlinale Forum 2009

Scandar Copti, Ajami, Oscar nominee, 2010

Elle Flanders*, Zero Degrees of Separation, Berlinale Forum, 2006

John Greyson*, Fig Trees, Berlinale Teddy Award 2009

Annemarie Jacir, Salt of The Sea, Cannes 2008

Sarah Kamens, Kashmir Journey to Freedom, Berlinale Panorama Opening Doc-night, 2009

Eran Kolirin, The Band’s Visit, Cannes Prize un certain regard 2007

Guy Maddin, My Winnipeg, TIFF best Candian film 2008

Juliano Merr-Khamis, Arna’s Children, Best Documentary, TriBeCa Film Festival 2006

Oren Moverman, The Messenger, Berlinale Silver Bear 2009, Oscar nominee 2010

Eyal Sivan, The Specialist, Berlinale Official Selection special 1999, The Grimme Award 1999

Kobi Snitz (Protagonist), Budrus, Panorama 2010

Yousef Sweid (actor), The Bubble, Berlinale Panorama 2007

Yael Hersonski, A Film Unfinished, Berlinale Panorama 2010, Sundance Festival, World Cinema Documentary Editing Award 2010

The Yes Men*, The Yes Men Fix The World, Berlinale Panorama, Audience Award 2009

A petition

Mohammad Bakri, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and one of the country’s most prominent actors and directors, has been fighting for his democratic right to free expression since 2002 when he made the world-famous film Jenin Jenin. Shortly after the Israeli military attacked a refugee camp in Jenin, banning reporters and human rights observers, Bakri snuck in and interviewed survivors.

The government of Israel censored his film for 2 years, and in a remarkable move, recently joined a group of Israeli soldiers in an ongoing lawsuit against him for defamation on the grounds that some of the claims made by individuals in the film were not substantiated.

This ongoing harassment prompted a group of prominent filmmakers including The Yes Men and Ajami co-director Scandar Copti to call for the nomination of Bakri for a prize they are calling the first Free Speech Bear Award. These filmmakers will give Bakri the award in just a few days on February 19 at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival to call attention to his fight for free expression.

They’ve asked for your support! Please add your name now to the petition supporting the nomination of Bakri. Below is the full text of the nomination letter.

In gratitude,

Cecilie Surasky
Jewish Voice for Peace

by Philip Weiss on February 7, 2010 · 18

Several BDS groups, including Adalah-NY here, have called for boycott of the Israel Ballet’s tour to Florida and the Northeast this month. The groups say that the ballet is part of the government’s rebranding campaign–

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JVP honors the remarkable work of Howard

As former JVP board member Penny Rosenwasser said:

Our beloved Howard Zinn died yesterday of a heart attack in Los Angeles; he was 87. What a huge loss for us as Jews, as progressives, as human beings who care deeply about the world and the people in it.

Zinn was a founding member of JVP’s Advisory Board and he was a tremendous supporter of our work and vision for justice and full equality in Israel and Palestine. He spoke out on behalf of the Shministim, Israel’s young conscientious objectors who waited in jail for refusing to serve the occupation. He spoke frankly about the intolerable subjugation of millions of Palestinians, and how it hurt both peoples. And he stood up for the full humanity of all people everywhere.

He always spoke the truth with humor and and with hope. How lucky we were to share this world and this time with him.

As Zinn wrote in his autobiography, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train” (1994), “From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than ‘objectivity’; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it.”

We were all his students, and we at JVP will continue to do our best to live up to his lessons.

Rebecca Vilkomerson
Signature
Executive Director
Jewish Voice for Peace

Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement calls on the State of Israel to fully open Gaza’s crossings and to allow the real victims of the closure – 1.5 million human beings – the freedom of movement necessary to realize their dreams and aspirations.

The embassy of Israel sent Theodoros Pangalos, Member of Parliament (Greece), three bottles wine as a gift for the holidays with the wishes of Ambassador Ali Giachia.

Theodoros Pangalos returned this gift and thanked the Ambassador with the following letter:

Dear Mr. Ambassador,

Thank you for the 3 bottles of wine that you sent me as season’s greetings. I wish to you, your family and everybody in the Embassy a happy new year. Good health and progress to you all.

Unhappily I noticed that the wine you have sent me has been produced in the Golan Heights. I have been taught since I was very young not to steal and not to accept products of theft. So I can not possibly accept this gift and I must return it back to you.

As you know, your country occupies illegally the Golan Heights who belong to Syria, according to the International Law and numerous decisions of the International Community.

I take the opportunity to express my hope that Israel will find security into its internationally recognized borders and the terrorist activities against Israel territory by Hamas or anybody else will be contained and made impossible, but I also hope that your government will cease practicing the policy of collective punishment which was applied on a mass scale by Hitler and his armies.

Actions such as those of these days of the Israel military in Gaza remind the greek people holocausts such as in Kalavrita or Doxato or Distomo and certainly in the ghetto of Warsaw.With these thoughts allow me to express to you my best wishes for you, the Israeli people and all the people of our region of the world.

Athens, 30/12/2008
Theodoros Pangalos, Member of Parliament (Greece)
– Web Site: http://www.pangalos.gr

– E-mail: pangalos@otenet.gr

Αναρτήθηκε από σίβυλλα στις Τρίτη, Δεκέμβριος 30, 2008