In East Jerusalem, the Israeli occupation has affected the city’s cultural landscape. Chronic underinvestment, expanding settlements and a massive wall – which Israel says it has constructed for security purposes and Palestinians allege is a land grab – have had the effect of squeezing the life out of Palestinian quarters and shifting the cultural center of gravity to Ramallah in the West Bank. In addition, it seems many Palestinian Jerusalemites have not been able to shake off the curfew mentality of the intifada, which ended almost seven years ago.
In the past few years, however, efforts have been launched to revive and enrich East Jerusalem’s modest cultural topography. The latest of these is a reincarnation of the Al-Quds cinema, which closed down a quarter of a century ago during the first intifada. Now it is the state of the art, though still unfinished, Yabous Cultural Center. In addition to film screenings, it hosts artistic, theatrical and musical events, including a photo exhibition about the Egyptian revolution and live jazz concerts.
Yabous marked its reopening with Freedom Films Week. The theme was appropriate given the thirst for political, economic and social liberty evident not only among Palestinians, but among peoples across the region – including in Israel, where a broad-based social protest movement erupted last summer. Israeli protesters declared Rothschild Avenue in Tel Aviv their own “Tahrir Square,” and Arab commentators dubbed the movement the “Israeli Spring.”
The films featured at Yabous included “We Won’t Leave,” which chronicles the Palestinian struggle against forced displacement in Jerusalem; “Fallega,” which documents the innovative and inspirational sit-ins organized by Tunisian activists following the fall of dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali; and “Cairo 678,” a taboo-breaking drama about sexual harassment in Egypt.
Rima Essa, Yabous’ cinema coordinator and the festival’s curator, says that Palestinian Jerusalemites have been in a “coma when it comes to cinema.” She sees the festival and the Yabous Cultural Center as “a bridge to restoring the long-interrupted relationship between the Palestinian audience in Jerusalem and cinema theaters.”
But can “reel freedom” help Palestinians achieve real freedom? “The role of culture is crucial,” answers Essa, “our people crave it.” She believes that cinema can help connect a new generation of young Palestinian Jerusalemites to the broader Arab and global context, enabling them to relate their situation and struggle to the outside world and end their years of isolation.
Numerous Palestinian films and directors have, in recent years, managed to raise awareness of their statelessness and their quest for nationhood, leading to international acclaim. One notable example is the Palestinian-Israeli film director Elia Suleiman, whose 2002 surreal black comedy “Divine Intervention” about a love affair across checkpoints between two Palestinians, one living in Israel and the other in the West Bank, became an international hit. His first feature film, “Chronicles of a Disappearance” (1996) received widespread critical acclaim.
However, Essa, who is a film director and the first Palestinian to graduate from Israel’s foremost film school, Sam Spiegel, does not believe that cinema can build bridges between Palestinians and Israelis because of the stark inequality between the two sides.
Other filmmakers disagree. For instance, Palestinian Emad Burnat and Israeli Guy Davidi were co-directors of “Five Broken Cameras.” This is a film that documents the nonviolent struggle of the residents of the Palestinian village of Bilin, who, armed only with cameras, sought to stop the seizure of their land.
One landmark co-production is the crime drama “Ajami,” directed by first-time filmmakers Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani. The film realistically depicts life in the deprived Jaffa neighborhood of the same name. It not only manages to challenge Israeli stereotypes about the neighborhood and delves into the complexities of human relationships between Muslims, Christians and Jews in Israel, it also won Israel’s top film accolade, the Ophir Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award in the United States.
But the strength of film does not stop at its power to alter people’s ways of thinking and challenge their conscience. Cinema theaters themselves help create a sense of community. For instance, my Palestinian neighbor, who is almost 90 years old, recalls a time before partition and war when her Jewish neighbors were “friends” and often sat side-by-side at the cinema, watching the ethereal Egyptian Jewish actress Leila Murad, a particular inter-communal favorite.
In today’s bitterly divided and segregated context, this image may appear like a far-fetched cinematic fantasy, but it once held true – and may yet again.
Front Page Features