[As the horror continues and multiplies in Palestine/Gaza we are
all trying to arm ourselves with as many historical facts as possible
to try to understand the complicated history of the Middle East,
specifically Palestinian/Jewish relations. ]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

PALESTINIAN FILMS IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES  
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Bill Meyer
November 17, 2023
Hollywood Progressive
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_ As the horror continues and multiplies in Palestine/Gaza we are all
trying to arm ourselves with as many historical facts as possible to
try to understand the complicated history of the Middle East,
specifically Palestinian/Jewish relations. _

'Bye Bye Tiberias',

 

As the horror continues and multiplies in Palestine/Gaza we are all
busy trying to arm ourselves with as many historical facts as possible
to try to understand the complicated history of the Middle East,
specifically Palestinian/Jewish relations. In order to better
understand the history of the region, and the films that we’ll be
reviewing, we should know that the modern nationalist Zionist movement
was founded in 1896 by Theodor Herzl and continued a perpetual search
for a homeland for the Jews. Palestine was not the first choice.

After WWI, the British were awarded by the League of Nations the
mandate to govern the land then known as Palestine. The British
Mandate regime in its practical terms and actual intent were having
the British High Commissioner in Palestine administrator carry out the
implementation of the promised Balfour Declaration. This was namely
interpreted by the British authorities, as facilitating the
establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine. 

Thus they adopted the policy of a massive flow of Jewish (Zionist)
immigrants into Palestine to swell their numbers from 10% in 1920 to
that of 33% 1935. This was paralleled by the British policy of
facilitating transfer of publicly owned Palestinian land to establish
colonies for Zionists only. Absentee landlords from Beirut & Damascus
helped in by selling large plats of land in northern Palestine to
become Zionist only colonies, and forcibly evicting Palestinian share
croppers from their ancestral lands. Zionist land ownership in 1920
totaling 2.5% had doubled to 5% in ten years.

The British were faced with mass protests by Palestinians against
enforced policies and later in the mid thirties it advanced to an
armed rebellion across all of Palestine. Because the British were
embroiled in WWII, they promised to grant Palestinians their
independence in 10 years. As the war concluded, the promise of
granting independence to Palestinians turned the Zionist immigrants
into terrorist militia forces attacking the British Mandatory offices
and killing military personnel. 

Having lost favor from both Palestinian and Zionist populations, the
British announced termination of the mandate giving the responsibility
of resolving the Palestine question to the UN in 1947. On November
29th, the UN recommended the partition of Palestine giving 54% of the
land to a Jewish (Zionist) State, while they only owned less than 7%
of the land. Less than half was allotted to an Arab Palestinian State
despite their population owning 93% of the land while their
constituents are double that of the Zionist population. You can
imagine the scenario, if you think of your home being invaded and
taken over by an outside force, while then offering to give you less
than half of your house back. That’s why Palestinians refused to
accept the partition and the Mandate in the first place.

During that period from 1920-1947, both Zionist Jews and Palestinians
fought against British colonial rule. A new film that premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival this year deals with this specific
history of British rule and the violent battles to drive them out.
British imperialism played a major role in creating the debacle in the
region as it did with all its colonies. Imperialism feeds off chaos
and conflict, and thrives by the rule of divide and conquer.

The drama, SHOSHANA, directed by famed British director, Michael
Winterbottom, (THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, THE EMPEROR NEW CLOTHES, ROAD TO
GUANTANAMO) is centered on the British occupation of Palestine in the
30s. It takes place during the time British ships were bringing Jews
to Palestine regularly. Palestinians were willing to accept the
immigrants if they could live together peacefully in one state, but
could not accept the unfair partition offered by the UN. There were
Social Zionists who held the idea of Jews and Arabs living together
peacefully in this enforced ‘homeland.’

The film centers also around a love affair between a British policeman
and a Jewish female reporter, something considered not rare in those
early days. There were two main militant Jewish groups, the more
violent Irgun, and the more moderate Haganah who began fighting the
British (and eventually the Palestinians). An even more militant
group, the Stern Gang, a name tagged by the British, broke off from
Haganah when it adopted the plan to support Great Britain in its fight
against the Nazis. Irgun proudly called themselves terrorists and were
responsible for endless acts of barbarism and depravity against the
British and the Palestinians, but were considered heroes to Zionists.

Unfortunately, the Jewish Zionists and Palestinians never worked out
how to live together, and when the British were eventually driven out,
the unjust partition made matters worse when the Palestinians refused
to accept the division of their homeland into two states as ordered by
the UN, and the Jewish Zionists took full power of the area, violently
driving out many of the Palestinians from 1947-49 in what Palestinians
call the Nakba (Catastrophe), and the Jewish Zionists call War of
Independence. Many wars of death and destruction have followed since,
while the US, the new empire replacing the British one, maintains
Israel as their Middle East lookout, their proxy to maintain power in
the region.

Another debut at TIFF is BYE BYE TIBERIAS, a moving documentary and
tribute to the popular Palestinian actress, Hiam Abbass, covering
decades in the life of her family. It’s filmed with insight and
intimacy by her daughter, Lina Soualem, who documents four generations
of women sharing their memories and stories of survival. It’s not as
much a film about her mother the actress/director, but about the four
generations of family in Palestine and Hiam’s many sisters. The film
addresses the trauma of the Palestinian Naqba and how it affected the
generations of women, however, very little is said of Israel
throughout the entire documentary. Abbass is a Palestinian Arab
Israeli born in Nazareth who moved to France in the early 80s, and now
carries dual citizenship. This movie has an underlying hope and
reveals Abbas as an inspirational and successful artist that has
appeared in many films showing the plight of Palestinians in their
brave and just fight against the Israeli Occupation. As the cinema
world accumulates great works of art about Palestine it’s a wonder
how often Palestinians can view their history of losses and pain. Lina
Soualem used a wealth of family film archives, showing how they
maintained their life and legacy after all they went through, how they
were able to influence the world around them and to transmit their
values to following generations.

Two of the most powerful cultural pieces about Palestine:

AL HELM: MLK IN PALESTINE (1993) Director Connie Field follows an
African American team of actors to Palestine to produce along with
Arab actors a story of MLK and his dream, similar to both cultures.

KNOWLEDGE IS THE BEGINNING (2005) – the extraordinary work of
Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said to create a Jewish-Palestinian
orchestra, has resulted in probably the most powerful and moving
documentary demonstrating the power of music to heal the world.

Here’s a chance to see Hiam Abbass in action for free online:

GAZA MON AMOUR (2020)And finally, here’s a website that, because of
the tragedies in Gaza, is offering access to many of the great
Palestinian films [[link removed]], many of them free to
watch.

The opinions expressed here are solely the author's and do not reflect
the opinions or beliefs of the Hollywood Progressive

_Bill Meyer is a musician, writer and producer of progressive
multimedia events. He travels worldwide performing jazz with several
groups. A longtime political activist and aficionado of progressive
cinema, Meyer usually writes on the culture pages of the People's
World and other journals, and primarily reports on film festivals._

* Film
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* Palestine
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* Palestinian Films
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* Gaza Mon Amor
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* Knowledge is the Beginning
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* Al Helm-MLK in Palestine
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