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The Palestinian Rothschilds By Noam Ben Ze'ev Tags: Palestinians, Israel In 1929, a son named Abdel Mohsin was born to Hassan al- Qattan, a Jaffa man who made his living in the orange trade, and his wife, Asma, from a family from Lod (Lydd, in Arabic), who emigrated from Egypt, fleeing the forced-labor camps set up for construction of the Suez Canal. The parents, barely literate, made sure that their son received a good education, sending him first to the school of the renowned teacher Khalil Sakakini in Jerusalem and eventually to the American University of Beirut. But Abdel Mohsin al-Qattan's plans changed when his father died and his mother, fearing the mounting attacks of the Haganah (pre-state Jewish militia), fled Jaffa with her younger children. He became the provider for his destitute family, and his search for employment led him to Beirut and later Kuwait, where he worked as a teacher, before going into business. Taking advantage of the surge of building in that country, he established a construction company. Business flourished; eventually, his company became one of the biggest in Kuwait, and al- Qattan grew rich. Omar al-Qattan, Abdel Mohsin's youngest son, says his father liked to quote his own teacher, Sakakini, as saying: "Our fathers sowed and we reaped, now it is our turn to sow." That is why Abdel Mohsin al-Qattan decided in 1994 to establish a foundation supporting Palestinian culture and art. "Both of my parents were teachers," Omar al-Qattan explains, "and they were always obsessive when it came to culture and education. It was only natural for him to invest in this area." Advertisement Today "al-Qattan" resonates among Palestinians as "Rothschild" did in the Jewish settlements of early 20th-century Palestine: He is a legendary benefactor. In addition to the A.M. Qattan Foundation, which provides an annual $2.25 million in funding for projects, scholarships and prizes, the family generously supports the Institute for Palestine Studies, the American University of Beirut, Birzeit University and many other institutions. Members of the al-Qattan family act as trustees of the London-based foundation, and Omar al-Qattan is its secretary and driving force. "We started out with three people," he says, "and now we employ 70 people in full-time positions." Born in 1964, Omar al-Qattan had a happy early childhood - as opposed to the lives of his immigrant parents. "I was born and grew up in Beirut, a cosmopolitan city with an atmosphere that was as skeptical and wary of religion as it was immersed in it," he says today. He attended a Protestant French school, his nanny was a Maronite, he heard the preaching of a Muslim sheiku every Sunday, and his friends were of different religions and belonged to various ethnic groups - Druze, Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, Armenians, Greek and Russian Orthodox. Was the Palestinian question present in his life? "Of course, it was central," he answers. Beirut, he continues, was the center for the Palestine Liberation Organization and the capital city of the Palestinian exile; his own home bordered on the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps. The assassination by Israelis of Ghassan Kanafani, a Palestinian writer and a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and of Palestinian poet and activist Kamal Nasser, in the early 1970s left a deep impression on al-Qattan. The Palestinian issue dominated his childhood, in part due to his father's political activism: Yasser Arafat's first interview with an American television network, in 1974, took place in their house. He remembers this, he notes, because "they told us to be very quiet." Before long the al-Qattan family had to go into exile again. When civil war broke out in Lebanon in 1975, al-Qattan's parents fled to Kuwait. Omar, who was 11 at the time, was sent to boarding school in England. Cinematic work When asked why his family had to leave Beirut, al-Qattan answers that the question "why did you leave" is asked in every Palestinian home: Any Palestinian probably asks his parents at some point why they left in 1948. "The answers are well-known: the Israeli threats, the bombings, the rumors of massacre and fears of rape. And then there is silence, and every person begins to examine his memories, while the guilt and doubt begin to seep in." He himself asked his parents the same question, and received an unequivocal answer: The civil war created a dangerous situation that made it impossible for them to stay in Beirut; yet, he adds, there was a deep sadness on their faces when they spoke of their departure. "Even though after 1948 they decided never again to experience exile, they had to go into exile twice more, from Beirut, and from Kuwait in 1990, although they were allowed to return to Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War." While in boarding school in England, al-Qattan recalls, he at first turned his back on his origins, wanting to be a British boy like all the others. Soon, however, he found himself studying Arabic and the Koran. "The Israeli invasion and devastation of my hometown, Beirut, and the Sabra and Chatila massacres made it impossible for anyone with a bond to the Arab world to turn away from its people's predicaments." Al-Qattan chose to go to film school and became a director and producer. As producer, he collaborated with Nazareth-born director Michel Khleifi on several feature films and documentaries, including "Forbidden Marriages in the Holy Land" and a movie about the Egyptian singer Asmahan. Prominent among the documentaries al-Qattan has directed is the epic, ambitious biography "Muhammad, Legacy of a Prophet" (2002), a two-hour-long film shot in Mecca, Jordan, Jerusalem, London and the United States. The movie was highly acclaimed in the press in America and elsewhere, and has been seen by over 10 million people. His cinematic work led to the founding of the A.M. Qattan Foundation's Palestinian Audio-Visual Project three years ago, which was originally intended, he explains, as a local industry with growth potential. The first phase involved instituting a three-year program, the first of which included 29 young men and women and was held in Amman, the only place accessible to Palestinians from all parts of the Arab world. Following the course, movies were made in Ramallah, Acre, Nazareth and Jerusalem. At the same time, the project aims to use cinema as a teaching tool, and thus dozens of schools now own sophisticated screening equipment and function as local cinema clubs. "We bought the rights to classic movies that I think every individual must see, among them those by Bergman, Max Ophuls and Fellini," al-Qattan explains, adding that his project also incorporates a state-of-the-art translation and subtitle studio in Ramallah. The curriculum of the courses includes "M" by Fritz Lang, Luis Bunuel's "Los Olvidados" ("The Forgotten Ones") and Visconti's "Bellissima." Al-Qattan: "Culture and education - my father believed that these are the areas that lead to human development, and that belief is what caused him to create the foundation." The family foundation also features a program that provides support to artists, authors and musicians. Last year's crop of activities, for example, included 15 scholarships for music students at institutions around the world, support for workshops held by the Palestinian Conservatory and the Palestinian Youth Orchestra, funding for musical education at refugee camps, a first prize in the piano competition of the Magnificat Institute in Jerusalem, as well as concerts, music classes in Qalqilyah and Jenin, and the annual Qattan Distinction Award, which was given to the Dam hip-hop group from Lod - one of many Israeli-Arab artists and groups to win scholarships and prizes. In addition, there is the Qattan Center for the Child in Gaza, also supported by the foundation, which features a spacious library, a concert hall, exhibitions and dozens of programs. Furthermore, the Qattan Center for Educational Research and Development sponsors studies related to the field of education, and has begun publishing a journal on the subject, distributed in thousands of copies throughout Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. Tolerant attitude The foundation's annual exhibition catalog reveals a Western-like modernism, including sponsorship of shows at museums around the world. Not all of the responses to the projects are favorable: after the exhibition in Ramallah in 2006, one visitor wrote to al-Qattan that she appreciated his contribution, but that the exhibition "looked unrealistic and disconnected from the tragic reality of poverty, starvation and despair where for some people it is impossible to find food or to get medicine for their families." Al-Qattan wrote back, he says, claiming that artistic expression should be encouraged, especially in times of dearth and oppression. The darkest of regimes, he notes, have used human suffering to silence questioning voices in order to keep artists from expressing their anger and rebelling. "Prayer and hope are not enough," he claims, "and hunger must not become an excuse for freezing humanity and feelings. On the contrary, culture and the intellect are the only means available to uncover the lies, injustice, corruption and political incompetence that led to the hunger of our citizens in the first place." The history of al-Qattan's people and his own personal experiences have not affected his open, tolerant attitude toward Israelis, and have not made him resentful, much less hateful. He says he considers hatred to be a terrible waste of human resources: "I'd rather spend my energy on a passion for truth." Dialogue, he adds, is an ideological matter, and he believes that Jews and Palestinians will ultimately live together, in one democratic country with equal rights for all. "That's why I worked with an Israeli director, Eyal Sivan, on a movie that reflects this attitude - 'Route 181.'" The demand for the right of return, he notes, has never ceased, and it finds expression in poetry, cinema and art and in popular resistance. But he insists on the need to distinguish between this justified demand on a symbolic level and its practical fulfillment: "The reality is that we cannot build a future without Israeli Jews. We need to think: What kind of home do we want to return to? More importantly, what kind of home would we want to share with our Jewish neighbors? And what kind of neighborly relations can we offer that will be acceptable to them? ... A country where everyone has a right of residency and is equal before the law seems to me a noble, just and possible solution. This is not wishful thinking or fantasy. "Whatever the magnitude and gravity of the injustices Israel has committed against us, [and] the injustices it continues to commit, we must find a way of persuading them of the vital necessity - and the beauty - of such a country." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Stronger than its ills The 60th anniversary celebrations are accompanied by a bad taste. Rise in racism Israeli Arabs say institutionalized racism has increased.   1.   Most honorable man 13:01  |  El-Birawi 03/05/08   2.   What a garbage writing 13:36  |  d 03/05/08   3.   Very important work 14:38  |  Ben Alofs 03/05/08   4.   Tehoretically nice, practically a disaster 17:04  |  Ofer 03/05/08   5.   one state 17:07  |  Steve 03/05/08   6.   one state 17:09  |  Steve 03/05/08   7.   I dont get it - the family is Egyptian! 18:42  |  Ariel 03/05/08   8.   bravo to Haaretz for this. Please treat Pals as humans 18:55  |  Skylar 03/05/08   9.   Who cares 19:52  |  David 03/05/08   10.   Ariel - Get it...most Jews came for Europe or elsewhere...Russia 19:57  |  American 03/05/08   11.   The Palestinian Rothschilds 19:59  |  Di 03/05/08   12.   American - Get it... there is no "Palestinian" identity 20:52  |  Michael Jacobs 03/05/08   13.   To Ofer-plenty of peaceful Pals in the US, too 21:15  |  Aphemia 03/05/08   14.   #10, Michael Jacobs: 100,000`s of Pals in Palestine in the 1880`s 21:45  |  newageblues 03/05/08   15.   Jews from Arab Countries are also Refugees. Enough 22:00  |  EgyptJewRefugee 03/05/08   16.   #8 Why do Antisemites spell so badly? 22:08  |  Elly 03/05/08   17.   Israel Does Not Get to Choose... 22:16  |  Reader 03/05/08   18.   Al Qattan 22:43  |  Jacques 03/05/08   19.   To # 6 23:35  |  Zouzou 03/05/08   20.   Great example.. 23:58  |  Athina 03/05/08   21.   #8: Jews are Jews 00:08  |  Ariel ( another) 04/05/08   22.   PARENTS EDUCATED HIM 00:24  |  TOBIA 04/05/08   23.   #17 01:37  |  Tobia 04/05/08   24.   Denying a groups (Pals) identity is an aspect of ethnic cleansing 02:16  |  anti-racist 04/05/08   25.   This sounds like an admirable beginning but from the vantage 02:31  |  lakshmi 04/05/08   26.   newageblues - No peace 02:35  |  Michael Jacobs 04/05/08   27.   #21- Ariel 03:06  |  yezmar 04/05/08   28.   anti-racist from Canada 10:38  |  Michael Jacobs 04/05/08

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