Learning as resistance // 2

Longer form resources on Palestine cont'd

Lately, I have felt myself split. One half of me wants to take in as many Palestinian stories as I can. To read poetry, novels, to hear about the olive trees and flowers and what they mean. To know it and hold it in me so it cannot be erased.

The other half wants desperately to try to make apathetic people understand. To turn over every piece of information and find the one thing that will speak to them. I feel the burden of proof put on every person who speaks up in support of Palestinian lives. Even when the proof and fact and legality is overwhelmingly apparent. Still is it not enough? To hold up each fact and ask, “do you see it now?”

This split means something. I have been trying, for days, to articulate just what that meaning is and I’m still just on the edge of it.

I think that for the longest time… For a Westerner to grasp what is happening, it has required Palestinians to step over their own feeling, their own pain, and meet that Westerner where they are with plain dispassionate fact. It feels as though emotion itself invalidates truth (don’t get me started on how, in the West, this has happened ad nauseum with women and trauma victims etc). But why should that be? when it is impossible to have experience without emotion.

Documentaries seem to give room for both the emotion and fact. ‘Feeling heart’ and ‘critical eye’. I think that’s why I’m naturally drawn to them. But over the next weeks I also want to allow room for the pure emotional truth that exists in fiction and narrative. I’ll share what I find here with you. In the mean time here are some excellent docs and journalism I’ve watched/read recently.

If you’re a new subscriber, thank you! I am so grateful that you are here.

Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (2001) [55mins]

I watched a beautiful documentary by Palestinian film maker Mai Masri. It follows Mona and Manar, two young Palestinian girls. Both girls are growing up in refugee camps, one in Beirut and the other in Bethlehem. They form a friendship through letters written to each other, and then are able to meet at the border. It is the kind of documentary I love, it has a light touch, and lets the children speak for themselves.

You can find it on Youtube (below) or on Netflix

Israelism (2023) [1hr 24m]

I saw a screening of a new film ‘Israelism’ a week or so ago and found it really striking. It examines the way Zionism seeks to embed itself into Jewish communities, even as it fiercely attacks Jewish people who are critical of it. It is interesting and important for anyone to watch, but especially if you grew up in the US or in a Jewish family.

You can rent it here up until the 26th Nov, so watch it while you can or catch a screening in your local area.

CURRENT CONTEXT

This is all still happening in real time. And they are days away from restarting their bombardment of Gaza. So here are a couple of helpful short pieces that stuck with me.

The Occupied West Bank: The Other Front [25 mins]

This Al Jazeera video report exposes the explosion of settler and IDF violence now happening in the West Bank (worth remembering that there’s no Hamas there).

You can find it on Youtube, but because they’ve ‘age restricted’ all of the Al Jazeera coverage it’s easier to go direct to their website to watch.

And to answer a question I hadn’t fully understood the extent of:

Why U.S. Elites Support Israel No Matter What [6 mins]

This short but surprisingly comprehensive report goes a long way to explain the U.S. and Israel relationship.

Lastly, something to read…

FACEBOOK APPROVED AN ISRAELI AD CALLING FOR ASSASSINATION OF PRO-PALESTINE ACTIVIST

This article by Sam Biddle for The Intercept, exposes Meta’s extreme bias when it comes to Israel. The title is self explanatory, but the article goes on to show that when a group tested what ads could be accepted the results were pretty staggering.

The submitted ads, in both Hebrew and Arabic, included flagrant violations of policies for Facebook and its parent company Meta. Some contained violent content directly calling for the murder of Palestinian civilians, like ads demanding a “holocaust for the Palestinians” and to wipe out “Gazan women and children and the elderly.” Other posts, like those describing kids from Gaza as “future terrorists” and a reference to “Arab pigs,” contained dehumanizing language.

Take this in when you can, I know it’s a lot. Thank you again for joining me in this learning. It means so much. x

NB: Quick note. I’ve swtiched from google to duckduckgo as my search engine and browser because the results aren’t skewed and it’s easier to find uncensored information. Also you’re not tracked, so that’s a plus.