Loss of Palestinian land to Israel, 1948 - 2000

Justice First!

in US Policies
for
Palestine-Israel
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Middle East

Film/Video Lists and Reviews

Justice First! welcomes recommended reading lists and book reviews. If you would like to contribute or comment, please write to info@justicefirstcommunity.org.

Featured film review by Miriam Adams, April 2007

Review of Divine Intervention : A film by Elia Suleiman

Understanding the four decade military occupation of Palestine can be a daunting effort to those new to comprehending Middle East history. Nazarene Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention reaches the viewer with imagery of an ordinary life pockmarked with 30 caliber bullet holes. Suleiman’s Buster Keaton-ish dead-pan requires the audience to enter his world through idiosyncratic and surrealistic imagery rather than the typical documentarian viewpoint.

American audiences expecting visual representation and analysis of occupation are instead slammed into bizarre and unexpected situations which convey the daily lunacy of intrusion and delusion of a military occupation on an (extra)ordinary man and woman, he, a film-maker and she a ninja feminist.

On my first of a dozen viewings, I realized this film had to be ‘seen’ through the gut thus by-passing internal dialog and intellectual analysis. Suleiman offers his audience opportunities to feel the impact of occupation on life and love with Dali-esque day-dreams on community, family and romance. A fantastic soundtrack of regional contemporary music moves the viewer in unexpected directions while wrapping its minimalist dialogue in an existential ‘red balloon’ of life under occupation.

AVATAR Films
Written/directed/starring Elia Suleiman
DVD: 90 minutes
Subtitles in English. Languages Arabic, Hebrew.
Available for loan for home viewing only, email info@justicefirstcommunity.org.

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Some recommendations.

Watch videos at home
The following is a partial list of videos that can be borrowed for home viewing only, by private arrangement with the owner. Email info@justicefirstcommunity.org to request a video loan.

• Divine Intervention
• Arna’s Children
• Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land
• Inner Tour
• Journey to the Occupied Lands
• Arab American Comedy Tour
• Kedma
• Private
• Israeli Wall in Palestinian Lands
• Tipping Point: Changing Perceptions of the US Israel Relationship
• Islam and Democracy: Lessons for US policy in the M/E
• Easiest Targets: Israeli policy of strip searching women and children
• Inside Mecca
• Lifting the Fog: Intrigue in the M/E
• TVs Promised Land
• Waiting for Quds
• The Wall
• The Iron Wall
• Forget Baghdad
• La Porte du Soleil (gate of the sun-French/Arabic only)
• The Message
• Lion of the Desert
• Dangerous Man- Lawrence AFTER Arabia –Ralph Fiennes
• Lawrence of Arabia (PBS-Battle for the Arab World)
• Tragedy in the Holy Land: Second Uprising
• Caged Bird’s Song
• Berlin Jerusalem (Amos Gitai)
• Paradise Now
• Hezbullah-Nasrallah
• The Holy Land (fictional)
• Rana’s Wedding
• Osama
• Kingdom of Heaven
• Battle of Algiers
• Rumi: poet of the heart
• Yellow Asphalt (Israeli fiction)
• Judgement at Nuremberg
• Luther
• Long Kiss goodnight (first mention of Muslims/WTC-1996 film)
• Iraq for Sale: War Profiteers
• Uncovered: War on Iraq
• Forbidden Marriage
• Chronicle of a disappearance (Suleiman)