[act-ma] Thursday 3/17: "1913 - Seeds of Conflict" and "The Land Speaks Arabic" - Free UPandOUT film screening

Tue Mar 15 20:45:30 PDT 2016

*<http://rule19.org/films-2016/160317-1913-Seeds%20of%20Conflict.pdf>**1913: 
Seeds of Conflict
How things first went wrong in Palestine
***

[see trailer <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlvTVvuI3oE>]

Showing Thursday, March 17, in Cambridge
[please download & distribute flyer 
<http://rule19.org/films-2016/160317-1913-Seeds%20of%20Conflict.pdf>]

Many consider the Balfour Declaration and Mandate period of the 1920s as 
the origin of today'€™s Israeli occupation of Palestine. Nay, not so. 
Breaking new ground, /*1913: SEEDS OF CONFLICT*/ explores the divergent 
social forces growing in Palestine --/before//World War I-- / that 
caused the simultaneous rise in Jewish and Arab nationalism.

1913 Palestine is a multi-lingual, multi-cultural society. Muslims, Jews 
and Christians coexist in relative harmony and often gather together in 
the coffeehouses of Jerusalem. But after European Jewish migrants 
arrive, Ruhi al-Khalidi, Jerusalem'€™s representative to the Ottoman 
Parliament in Istanbul, voices growing concerns about what he sees as 
their secret agenda to build a state. So does Albert Antebi, an 
Arab-speaking Sephardic Jew known as the Jewish '€œpasha,'€ who 
embraces economic and cultural Zionism, but fears the consequences of a 
Zionist land grab.

"/We witness a world where Jerusalem'€™s Old City is ... one where 
Muslim, Christian, Armenian, and Jews all share a common space, with 
coffeehouses a particularly popular gathering-spot for men. This reality 
is slowly upended as European Zionist Jews disembark at Palestine'€™s 
ports./" ~Khelil Bouarrouj

"/The ever expanding land-use by Jewish immigrants and creation of 
militias to guard their collective farms makes it all but inevitable 
that disputes between the communities would turn violent./"'  ~Claire Sadar

"/What good is it to arouse the bitterness of our fellow citizens? I 
predict an inextricable situation of Ottoman anti-Semitism if we do not 
change our methods./'€'  ~Albert Antebi

*The Land Speaks Arabic
*
See Trailer <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRBgJZ7c30E>

This film documents the founding of the Zionist movement and the 
expulsion of Palestinians in the early part of the 20th century. The 
historical narrative is reconstructed by weaving archival materials such 
as photographs, films, news reels and official documents, with the 
testimonies of Palestinian survivors of the forced expulsion of 1947-48, 
referred to as the /Nakba/.

Beginning with Masalha'€™s thesis emphasizing the idea of '€œtransfer'€ 
as the rudimentary motive of Zionism, the film chronicles the 
establishment of the Israeli state through the initial proposals of 
European Zionists in the late 19th century and the terrorist tactics of 
Jewish settlers in Palestine under the British Mandate. Acting as the 
historical anchor of the film, Masalha first describes how he came upon 
innumerable records in Israeli archives outlining the transfer of 
European Jews to Palestine with the simultaneous ejection of local 
Palestinians to neighboring countries. He then places this policy within 
the European colonial mindset of the time, one based on racist, 
supremacist notions.

Terrorizing Palestinian communities meant disrupting local Arab society. 
Often dressed as Arabs, members of Zionist terrorist organizations such 
as the Stern Gang and the Irgun, set out to disrupt Arab urban centers 
by initiating these explosions and intimidating Palestinian leaders.'  
By 1948, the terror campaigns turned to large-scale massacres and 
attacks on villages, leading to the mass explosion of Palestinians that 
culminated in the Nakba. The film ends with several eyewitness accounts 
by Palestinians who experienced and survived the Nakba.

Employing a team of researchers who scoured through archives in Europe, 
the US, and the Middle East, *The Land Speaks Arabic* is thoroughly 
researched, nuanced and well-made. Gargour'€™s film is a significant 
contribution to the historical recording of the Palestinian narrative 
and is a must-see for anyone interested in the history of Palestine and 
the Palestinians.

------------------

//"//[Zionism]//wasn’t just to colonize Palestine. It was also to 
exploit indigenous people as cheap labor, dispossess and disperse them, 
replace them with arriving Jews, legitimize ethnic cleansing, and remove 
Palestinians from their land and history. Historical records were 
falsified. Palestinians were re-invented as a semi-savage, nomadic 
remnant.////Mass elimination methods were justified for a //'//people 
too many.//' /" ~Stephen Lendman, writer (eg, *Flashpoint in Ukraine: US 
Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III),* syndicated columnist, activist, News 
TV personality
/
"/The state of Israel must invent dangers, and to do this it must adopt 
the methods of provocation and revenge
. And above all, let us hope for 
a new war with the Arab countries so that we may finally get rid of our 
troubles and acquire our space./"  ~From the diary of Moshe Sharett, 
Israeli'’s first Foreign Minister from 1948-1956, and Prime Minister 
from 1954-1956

"“/Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Palestinian) hilltops as 
they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take 
now will stay ours. 
Everything we don'’t grab will go to them./" ~ 
Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of the 
Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998.

"/We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live 
here as slaves./"' ~Heilbrun, Chairman, Committee for the Re-election of 
General Shlomo Lahat, mayor of Tel Aviv, Oct. 1983

“/Between ourselves, it must be clear that there is no room for both 
peoples together in this country. We shall not achieve our goal if the 
Arabs are in this small country. There is no other way than to (get rid 
of) all of them. Not one village, not one tribe should be left./”  ~ 
Joseph Weitzwrote in1940 as head of the Jewish Agency’s Colonization 
Department

//"In the end, we must come out publicly with the truth: We had no right 
to build a settlement and to realize the ideal of Zionism with other 
people's property. To do this is robbery." //~Rabbi R Benjamin, 1955/
/
//"They are too many and too much rooted. The only way is to cut and 
eradicate them from the roots. Without taking action to transfer the 
[Arab] population we will not be able to solve our question by land 
buying. ~ //Yozef Weitz, Jewish Natl Land Fund //

"The British played a crucial role in terms of disarming the Palestinian 
society. The zionists by contrast had an arms industry. The way the 
Jewish community was created in Palestine, it was created as a military 
civilian community. Settlers were also soldiers at night. Settlers had a 
fence and watchtower. The Jewish community in Palestine was trained as a 
military garrison."
//~Dr Nur Masalha, School of Theology, Philosophy & History, St Mary's 
College; Univ of Surrey, Director of Holy Land Studies//

/*Plan Dalet*/, /the ethnic cleansing of Palestine/.//
"War will give us the land. The concept of 'ours' and 'not ours' are 
peace concepts; only and in war they lose their whole meaning."// ~Ben 
Gurion//
//
"The Jewish community in Palestine had more soldiers than all the Arab 
countries around it. Come to early 1948, the [Arab] villages had no 
weapons at all. Militarily the balance was completely against the 
Palestinians." //~Dr Nur Masalha//
///
"I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a 
foreign policy not approved by the Jews. ... I am very much concerned 
over the fact that the Jewish influence here is completely dominating 
the scene and making it almost impossible to get Congress to do anything 
they don't approve of. ... The Israeli embassy is practically dictating 
to Congress through influential Jewish people here in this country./" 
~John Foster Dulles, 1948

"/We have exhausted our requests. President Clinton has answered all our 
needs. There has been no American president in history like President 
Clinton, in his support of Israel and the Jewish people./" ~ Shimon 
Peres (From Washington Report, July 1996, pg. 17)

"/Capitol Hill is an Israeli occupied territory/". ~Patrick Buchanan 
(St. Louis Dispatch, 10/20/1990)

"/Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will 
do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about 
American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and 
the Americans know it./" - Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 
3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.

/"What is... disturbing to me is that many of these pro-Israeli 
lawmakers sit on the House International Relations Committee despite the 
obvious conflict of interest that their emotional attachments to Israel 
cause... The Israeli occupation of all territories must end, including 
Congress."/ ~Cynthia McKinney

------------------

*When/where*
doors open 6:40; film starts promptly 7pm
243 Broadway, Cambridge - corner of Broadway and Windsor,
entrance on Windsor
rule19.org/videos <http://rule19.org/videos>

Please join us for a stimulating night out; bring your friends!
*free film & free door prizes
****[donations are encouraged]
*feel free to bring your own snacks and soft drinks - no alcohol allowed

"/You can't legislate good will - that comes through education/." ~ 
Malcolm X

*UPandOUT film series* - see rule19.org/videos <http://rule19.org/videos>

Why should YOU care? It's YOUR money that pays for US/Israeli wars - on 
Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, Libya. Syria, Iran, So America, etc 
etc - for billionaire bailouts, for ever more ubiquitous US prisons, for 
the loss of liberty and civil rights...

*
*