New York Jews are introduced, through film, to another Israel - Haaretz

Subscribe to Print Edition

Fri., December 07, 2007 Kislev 27, 5768

Israel Time: 21:50 (EST+7)

web haaretz.com

Back to Homepage

Rosner's Domain

Diplomacy

Defense

Jewish World

Opinion

National

Print Edition

Advertising

Books

Arts & Leisure

Business

Real Estate

Easy Start

Travel

Week's End

Anglo File

Hanukkah

del.icio.us

Digg It! new

Last update - 21:46 07/12/2007

New York Jews are introduced, through film, to another Israel

By Noa Yachot

Tags: Mohammad Bakri

The Jewish community of New York City expresses its solidarity with Israel often and vociferously. Yet despite the independence marches, annual Israel film festivals, and vigils for abducted IDF soldiers, there is a major slice of Holy Land citizenry that self-identified New York Jews don't often hear about.

The "Other Israel Film Festival," a week-long showcase which ended on Thursday, sought to expose the community to the often invisible face of Israel's significant Arab population. Presented in partnership with the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan, the festival's mission, as stated on its Web site, is to "bring Israeli Arab perspectives and culture to an audience that has never heard this voice before."

And it appears to have accomplished its goal. Organizers feared the unconventional subject matter would spark tensions and outbursts, but they couldn't have been more thrilled to be dead wrong.

	Advertisement

"The reception has been unbelievable," says Carole Zabar, the founder of the festival. "People have reacted unbelievably to these films. They don't want to go away after the Q&A sessions, and almost all of our films have been sold out."

Zabar serves as a board member of the Manhattan JCC, the New Israel Fund and the American Friends of Meretz. She founded the festival to face head-on the glaring elephant in the room when Israel is celebrated as a state of the Jewish people only. "New Yorkers have no idea. Israel is a Jewish state to them. They know there's an Arab or two, but not that one out of five citizens is Arab," Zabar says.

Mohammad Bakri, possibly Israel's most recognizable Arab actor, matches Zabar's enthusiasm and raises it a notch. "I have to tell you, I'm here in the middle of the Jewish Community Center and I feel at home," exclaims Bakri, who assisted in the festival's organization. He appears in two films: as an actor in 1984's Behind the Walls, the first Israeli film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and "Since You Left," a 2005 autobiographical documentary, which he directed.

The festival sets out to tell apolitical stories "outside the conflict," a seemingly impossible task considering the passions the subject matter inflames. "Most of our planning time was spent on how to avoid things getting nasty," says Isaac Zablocki, the director of film and literary programs at the JCC. To preemptively alleviate those concerns, the festival sought the partnership of Arab organizations, which Zabolocki said applauded the effort but wouldn't openly endorse a project they said had such a Jewish and Israeli orientation.

Considering the pre-festival anxieties, the refusal of Arab organizations to participate and even the provocative festival title - the quest to remain apolitical inevitably raises eyebrows. And while the organizers insist they chose films of a primarily humanistic nature, the conflict is never more than a few steps behind the protagonists and the plots.

For instance, Tawfik Abu Wael's Atash (Thirst), recipient of the International Critics Prize at Cannes in 2004, which also tied for Best Film at the 2004 Jerusalem Film Festival. Although the Arab-Israeli conflict doesn't take center-stage in the film, the isolation experienced by the family in the film, and the father's oppressive search for dignity - symbolized in the film by running water - cannot be seen outside the context of the harshest of political realities. Similarly, the only film told from a purely Jewish perspective, Dalia Hagar's Close to Home, ends in the beating of an Israeli Arab Jerusalemite after he was wrongly and aggressively questioned by Border Policewomen, both still teenagers. And in Uri Barabash's Behind the Walls, where Bakri plays a convicted Palestinian terrorist sentenced to life in jail, Jewish and Arab prisoners are directly pit against one another. None of the films evade the extent to which 60 years as second-class citizens have shaped the identities of the Arab citizens of Israel.

Despite the material, the festival's organizers have done an impressive job of keeping their audience learning without provoking. Panel discussions have gently steered from inflammatory subjects, and Bakri, familiar with controversy since his 2002 documentary Jenin, Jenin was briefly banned in Israel, insists civility has been maintained.

"People here are interested in seeing films and in understanding. And they're shocked by what they're learning. They know there are problems, but the politics are the last thing that interests them," he says. He tells how he insisted the crowd, comprised of New York Jews of all ages and levels of religiosity, refer to him as a Palestinian Israeli, not an Arab Israeli. Not only did the viewers consent, but they clapped. "They said it was the right thing," he reported with amazement.

Zabar writes on the Web site that "most of Israel's Arabs have grown up in a Jewish State, and more importantly, in a democracy." Many would differ with this order of importance, and would argue that Israel's definition as a Jewish state has been far more formative for its Arab residents than its arguably democratic nature. But while taking the political out of their narrative may seem a slightly naïve goal, it appears the Other Israel Film Festival has come exceptionally close.

Bookmark to del.icio.us


	Foreign correspondents
	Police probe 3 Israeli journalists suspected of unauthorized travel to enemy states.


	Petrol protest
	Gaza gas station owners refuse to accept reduced fuel supplies from Israel.

Today Online


	Bradley's Burston: Self Test: Are you a fanatic on the Middle East?
	Responses: 72


	U.S. wants details on plan to build homes in East Jerusalem
	Responses: 146


	Yoel Marcus: Olmert wants to leave his mark as a PM with a peace agenda
	Responses: 31


	Defense officials: Hamas upgraded Qassam arsenal
	Responses: 134


	Magnate in U.K. scandal: I feared charges of a 'Jewish conspiracy'
	Responses: 53

Rosner's Domain

The attack on Hanukkah (WTR)

The NIE and the freedom to grumble

Poll: Do you trust the new intelligence on Iran?

Israel Factor: Yes to Rudy, no to Mideast mediation

More Headlines
21:34 Rice warns Israel against East J'lem construction


18:11 Livni, at NATO: There is no doubt Iran is seeking nuclear arms


18:21 Magnate in U.K. scandal: I feared charges of a 'Jewish conspiracy'


19:54 Poll: Few West Bank settlers willing to leave homes for cash


19:08 Thousands come to J'lem to protest plans to divide capital


17:41 Muslim religious heads from Indonesia pay a rare public visit to Israel


20:27 Arab League head urges world to increase aid to Palestinians


17:16 Palestinians: IDF soldiers kill Gaza farmer near Israel border


17:22 IDF troops briefly detain two journalists at West Bank protest


17:02 Two Israelis arrested in Thailand for possession of 23,000 Ecstasy pills