Before and after the films, everyone’s invited to indulge
in our vegetarian organic refreshments
Wednesday,
February 4 at 7:30 pm
Palestine
is
Still
the
Issue
In 1974, John Pilger made the film Palestine Is Still The Issue. It was about a nation of people ─ the Palestinians ─ forced off their land and later subjected to a military occupation by Israel. An occupation condemned by the United Nations and almost every country in the world, including Britain. But Israel is backed by a very powerful friend, the United States. In 2002 Pilger made another film of the same name. He said that nothing had changed in 25 years regarding the great injustice. What had changed, however, is that the Palestinians have fought back. Stateless and humiliated for so long, Palestinians have risen up against Israel's huge military machine, although they themselves have no arms, no tanks, and no American planes and gun ships or missiles. Some Palestinians committed desperate acts of terror, like suicide bombing. But for most Palestinians, the overriding, routine terror, day after day, has been the ruthless control of almost every aspect of their lives, as if they live in an open prison. This evening's film is the story of the Palestinians and a group of courageous Israelis united in the oldest human struggle ─ to be free.
In 1923 Vladimir Jabotinsky, leading intellectual of the Zionist movement and father of the right wing of that movement, wrote:"Zionist colonization must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population ─ behind an IRON WALL, which the native population cannot breach." From that day these words became the official and unspoken policy of the Zionist movement and later the state of Israel. Settlements were used from the beginning to create a Zionist foothold in Palestine. After 1967 and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the aim of the settlement movement became clear ─ create facts on the ground and make the creation of a Palestinian state impossible. Thirty nine years of occupation and the policy started showing results. There are now more than 200 settlements and outposts scattered throughout the West Bank blocking the geographic possibility of a contiguous Palestinian territory. This documentary exposes this phenomenon and follows the timeline, size, and population of the settlements, and its impact on the peace process. It also touches on the latest project to make the settlements a permanent fact on the ground -- the wall that Israel is building in the West Bank and its impact on the Palestinian's peoples. Settlements and related infrastructures are impacting every aspect of life for all Palestinians from land confiscation, theft of natural resources, confiscation of the basic human rights, creation of an apartheid-like system, to the devastating impact in regards to the future of the region and the prospect of the peace process. Palestinians and Israelis began the peace process based on a very simple principle: land for peace. Settlements destroy that principle and create a land with no peace.
Wednesday,
February 18 at 7:30 pm
Jerusalem:
the
East
Side
Story
This documentary
covers the
recent history
of Jerusalem
through
interviews with
Palestinian and
Israeli leaders,
human rights
activists, and
political
analysts.
History is
heaped on
Jerusalem by the
truckload.
The latest
shipment of
history is the
Israeli
occupation.
In 1948, the
western part of
the city fell
under Israeli
control;
in 1967, the
eastern part
fell under
Israeli
occupation.
Since then,
Israel has
pursued a policy
of Judaizing the
city, aiming to
achieve “Jewish
demographic
superiority.”
Part of this
policy is to
drive
Palestinian
Muslims and
Christians out
of the city
─
denying their
presence,
history, and
ties to the
land. This
film takes you
on a journey
exposing
Israel’s policy
to gain
supremacy and
hegemony over
the city and its
inhabitants.
It also touches
on the future of
the city:
Jerusalem is the
key to peace.
Without
Jerusalem, there
is no peace for
anyone.
In this 2007
documentary
by
Palestinian
filmmaker
Maryse
Gargour,
the late
19th century
birth of
Zionism
─
and its
repercussions
for
Palestinians
─
is detailed
with
original
source
documents,
rare
archival
footage,
testimonies
of
witnesses,
and
interviews
with
historians.
All help to
illustrate
that the
expulsion of
the
indigenous
Arab
population
from
Palestine
was far from
an
accidental
result of
the 1948
war.
This
award-winning
film shines
a spotlight
on the
ethnic
cleansing of
Palestine by
the Zionist
movement.
33
Days
Palestinian
filmmaker
Mai Masri
puts a face
on the
often-desensitized
horrors of
war taking
us beyond
the icy
statistics
and muted
news stories
into the
fiery
reality and
courageous
hearts of
the
survivors.
Filmed
during the
Israeli war
on Lebanon
in the
summer of
2006, this
gripping
documentary
follows the
real-life
stories of
four people:
a theatre
director
working with
children who
took shelter
in a theatre
after their
homes were
destroyed;
an aid
worker who
coordinated
emergency
relief
efforts;
a journalist
for an
underground
television
station;
and a mother
trying to
cope with
her new-born
baby.
