Palestine Update 610
Editorial comment
Art as medium for political transformation
Art is a medium in which political transformation can find fertile grounds. This is especially so when music, poetry, artistry, and films individually or collectively portray messages that affect minds and convert perspectives. It enables one to relate to images in whatever medium they appear and begin a process of introspection and reflection on reality. Netflix’s film: ‘Farha’ has won accolades from around the world for its true-to-life representation of the Nakba. The film is not the end of a story that launched the Nakba. The Nakba goes on unimpeded striking at the very roots of Palestinian rights and dignity. Netflix has had to cope with critics calling the story an attempt to “create a false pretence” and incitement against Israeli soldiers”. In a similar vein, the film “Kashmir Files’ was recently called ‘vulgar’ by the Head of the Tribunal of Judges in India, Nadav Lapid, an Israeli Film maker – a radical political thinker-cum-film-maker at the International Film Festival held in India. Lapid has had to bear the brunt of thousands of abuse, intimidation, and threats. Yet, art is a medium that must be pursued as an instrument of transformation in intra-disciplinary fields.
Read about a new report by international and Israeli human rights organizations that explores apartheid as an “a structural element of furthering Zionist settler colonialism”. This report suggests “a framework previously overlooked…in their own reports on Israeli apartheid”. It is a must-read for those who seek to be in the Palestinian struggle for liberation.
The struggle heightens in levels of militancy as the oppression grows. Palestinian factions have notified that the Holy City of Al-Aqsa Mosque and its historical monuments are a red line, and Israel is alerted not interfere with it, to Judaize it in any way. Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates handed over to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, a file on Israel’s grave crimes committed against the Palestinian people.
At the same time journalists and media institutions face vulnerability at a rate of 79% of violations. 32 violations were documented against pages belonging to media institutions and accounts of journalists, including those whose accounts were completely deleted and 25 accounts of Palestinian activists who wrote about the Palestinian issue. Finally, the ongoing celebration of Palestine and the Palestinian flag at the Qatar World Cup 2022 by millions of Arab fans compel rethinking assumptions about the Arab people’s relationship with Palestine. On ‘hate’ and love at the World Cup: Palestine is more than just an Arab cause.
On behalf of MLN Palestine Updates
Ranjan Solomon
Netflix’s ‘Farha’: Nakba film resonates with Palestinians globally
Thousands of people have praised the film for its depiction of the Nakba and shared their own family’s story of being forced to flee Palestine
The film, which is inspired by true events, revolves around a teenage girl named Farha who witnessed Zionist militias kill her family during the Nakba.
The Nakba literally translates as “The Catastrophe” and is commonly used to describe events surrounding the establishment of Israel, when more than 700,000 Palestinians were either expelled or fled their homes to make way for the new state. It is a term that is also used to describe the violence meted out against the Palestinian Arab population during the period of British rule in Palestine, which extended from 1917 to 1948. Since the film’s release on 5 December, the hashtag #Farha has trended on Twitter in the UK, with thousands of people sharing positive reviews for the film, and encouraging others to watch it.
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My father watched Farha on Netflix. He said ‘every single thing that happened in this movie, I experienced in 1967′ (Social media user)
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Jalal Abu Khater, a Jerusalem-based writer, was among the many social media users who took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the film, and describe the experiences that their families faced during that fateful period. “First scene in Farha showed a village that looks like Lifta, Jerusalem. It had me thinking of both my maternal grandparents, Fatima and Mahmood, who were expelled from Lifta in 1948, at a backdrop of gruesome massacres by Zionist gangs in neighboring Deir Yassin, less than 2km away,” he wrote. Others praised the director for highlighting atrocities that they said were still taking place today.
“Finished watching Farha on Netflix and made me realise how lucky I am, being able to pause the movie whenever it got too triggering and emotional. Palestinians can’t press pause when they’re watching their friends and families get killed in front of them,” another user wrote. “Anyone who empathised with Anne Frank’s story needs to watch Farha on Netflix,” said another Twitter user.
‘Loyal to the story’
Since the film’s release, its director – Darin Sallam – and Netflix, have faced a barrage of abuse from Israeli officials and ordinary Israelis. “It’s crazy that Netflix decided to stream a movie whose whole purpose is to create a false pretence and incite against Israeli soldiers,” said Israel’s outgoing finance minister, Avigdor Lieberman.There has also been a coordinated down voting of its ratings online, with hundreds of spam accounts leaving negative reviews on the movie rating site Imdb. Sallam and the film’s producers condemned the “aggressive attacks” in a statement on 3 December, and efforts to silence Palestinians from telling their own story.
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Statement for the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
As Israel ushers in a dangerous ultra-right wing, ultra-orthodox religious administration, belligerent Israeli settlers, protected by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), are emboldened to viciously attack, and the sanctity of the holy city of Jerusalem is put in jeopardy. Never have the Palestinian people needed the support and solidarity of the international community more than now.
In less than a year, the world has witnessed the inexcusable killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an IDF sharpshooter, an alarming rate of arrests, detention, and mistreatment of Palestinian minors, an exponential increase in the killing of Palestinians, the ongoing devastation of house demolitions and the relentless confiscation of Palestinian land and expansion of illegal settlements. Yet, Israel remains unaccountable for its blatant disregard of UN resolutions and international and human rights law. It is unabashed in its silencing of civil society. A newly elected Knesset member has called highly respected human rights organizations an “existential threat” while the new Prime Minister agrees to retroactively legalize settlements and outposts. The future is bleak for the beleaguered Palestinian people.
And so, the question becomes – with whom will the international community stand?
Read full text from Pax Christi.Net:
Palestinian human rights groups release new report ‘Israeli Apartheid: Tool of Zionist Settler Colonialism’
The new report, published November 29, explores apartheid as a “a structural element of furthering Zionist settler colonialism” – a framework previously overlooked by international and Israeli human rights organizations in their own reports on Israeli apartheid.
“Palestinian civil society demand decolonization and dismantling of Israel’s settler colonialism and apartheid regime, the fulfillment of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, systematically denied since the British mandate, and the right of refugees and exiles in the diaspora to return,” Al-Haq said in a statement on the day of the report’s release.
For more see Mondoweiss
Palestinian resistance: aggression against al-Aqsa will be met by explosion deep inside enemy entity
Palestinian resistance factions confirmed that the Zionist aggression against the holy Al-Aqsa mosque would be met by an explosion deep inside the enemy entity. Palestine Today quoted the factions in a statement on Tuesday: The double Jerusalem operation was a clear and explicit response to the aggression of the occupation entity and its Zionist rapists at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The factions warned in statements that the Holy City of Al-Aqsa Mosque and its historical monuments were a red line, and we will not allow the enemy to interfere with it, to Judaize it or to divide it at a maximum of time and space. It called on the Palestinian people to ignite the Occupied Palestinian Territory under the feet of rapists by all available means.
Read more in Saba
Malki hands over file on Israeli grave crimes against Palestinian people to ICC Prosecutor
Minister of Foreign Affairs and affairs Expatriates Riyad al-Malki handed over to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, a file on the Israeli grave crimes committed against the Palestinian people. This came during a meeting ahead of the 22nd session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, which ends on the 10th of this month.
Malki stressed the importance of the ICC and its role in achieving justice for the Palestinian people and holding war criminals accountable in light of the rise to power of an extremist Israeli government of terrorist settlers, who bluntly express their support for extrajudicial killing of Palestinians, their forcible expulsion, and settlement expansion. He stressed that all of these crimes fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC, affirming the importance of expediting the criminal investigation and bringing criminals before international justice, which he stressed will contribute to the protection of the Palestinian people and deter crimes committed against them.
He noted that the state of Palestine continues to cooperate with the ICC and the staff of the Prosecutor to submit all documented information that prove that Israeli military and civilian officials have committed serious and continuous crimes against the Palestinian people. He called on the ICC Prosecutor to pay a visit to Palestine and give priority to achieving justice.
Read full account in WAFA
More than 72 digital violations against Palestinian content during the past month
Sada social media platforms reported 40 deletions of accounts and pages completely from the digital space. Journalists and media institutions are still the most vulnerable to documented violations, at a rate of 79% of violations, as 32 violations were documented against pages belonging to media institutions and accounts of journalists, including those whose accounts were completely deleted, and 25 accounts of Palestinian activists who wrote about the Palestinian issue.
The violations monitored by Sada Social were distributed across the various social media platforms as follows: The platforms run by Meta Company were at the top of the platforms in terms of committing 61 violations (41 Facebook / 20 Instagram), which varied between deleting the post, followed by restricting access, preventing publication, and preventing the use of some features such as broadcasting.
Regarding the nature of the violated content related to the Palestinian cause, the center monitored 25% of the nature of the violated content, which consisted of texts and words related to the Palestinian cause, and 40% of the content that included Palestinian pictures of martyrs or events describing the aggression of the occupation, and 32% of the violations were for video clips that mostly included funerals of the Palestinian martyrs who died during the past month. Where the algorithms consider these contents to be a tribute to people and organizations, Mita describes that as “dangerous”.
The Center stressed the need to report any violation of freedom of publication, or hate speech or incitement against the Palestinians on the digital space, and the importance of documenting these violations based on the importance of being on digital platforms and transmitting the Palestinian narrative, and respecting freedom of expression as a right guaranteed by all international covenants.
On the other hand, the Sada Social Center specialized in protecting digital rights in Palestine organized a symposium entitled “Digital war against Palestinian news… What is the solution?” To shed light on the digital war of Palestinian news, the reality of digital restrictions on journalists, and the solutions offered to us as Palestinians.
The center also participated in the annual Bread & Net Forum 2022 in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in a paper on “patterns of integration between digital tyranny, tyranny, and oppression against societies, and its role in narrowing the space of opinion, freedom of communication, and access to information.”
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On ‘hate’ and love at the World Cup: Palestine is more than an Arab cause
We were mistaken to think that Palestine represents the central issue for all Arabs. Such language suggests that Palestine is an external subject, to be compared to other collective struggles that consume most Arabs, everywhere. The ongoing celebration of Palestine and the Palestinian flag at the Qatar World Cup 2022 by millions of Arab fans compels us to rethink our earlier assumptions about the Arab people’s relationship with Palestine. The starting point for my argument is Rome, Italy, not Doha, Qatar. In August 2021, I attended a friendly football match between Morocco’s Raja Casablanca and the Italian AS Roma. Thousands of Moroccan fans accompanied their team. Although fewer in number, their matching outfits, songs, chants and group dances in the stands made them more visible than the rest. Although the environment of the game had little or no political context, the Moroccans sang for Palestine and wore Palestinian kuffiyas draped with the colours of the Palestinian flag. It was a heart-warming gesture, typical of Arab fans at football matches. As the fans began leaving the stadium in larger numbers, I realized that the very fan culture of Raja Casablanca was modelled entirely around Palestine. Their main slogan is Rajawi Filistini – Palestinian Rajawis, the words embroidered on their sports jerseys.
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