IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
The lights were dim and the audience whispered. The viewers watched the screen to see what would happen to the hero of the film “Oversized Coat,” which screened Dec. 26 at the Red Crescent Society hall. Gazans watched the film in an uplifted mood, one the city had been not seen for decades.
on January 31, 2016
Q&As
In light of the ongoing crisis in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories and unrest against Israel’s nearly half-century-old military occupation regime, the IMEU offers the following expert Q&A with analyst and former advisor to PLO Chairman and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Diana Buttu.
on October 14, 2015
The Wanted 18 is an animated film showing how a group of activists in the town of Beit Sahour, West Bank, set up a collective farm to produce local Palestinian milk to substitute for dairy supplies from Israel. The locals, who were mainly academics and professionals, had no prior experience in running dairy farms. They decided to set up an informal co-operative and managed to buy 18 cows from a kibbutznik (an Israeli peace campaigner).
on September 25, 2015
For more than a decade, the Kasbah family has displayed a banner depicting brothers Samer and Yasser, shot dead by Israeli troops during the Palestinian Intifada aged 15 and 11. Ten days ago, Fatima and Sami Kasbah added the picture of a new "martyr" -- 17-year-old Mohammed, their third son to die by Israeli army gunfire.
on July 15, 2015
In the occupied West Bank, almost anything can come to be seen as a threat to Israel’s security. Even cows. Yes, cows. Here’s the story: During the activism of the first Palestinian intifada, residents of the West Bank town of Beit Sahour organized boycotts of Israeli goods in an act of civil disobedience intended to pressure the government. Local activists in 1988 hatched a plan to bypass Israeli suppliers and produce milk locally.
on June 24, 2015
Deeb al-Aajleh has survived every Israeli war on Palestinians since the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine. “I lived the wars, the intifadas, everything, but nothing was as bad as the last attack,” said al-Aajleh, 74, a resident of the Shujaiya district of Gaza City. Israeli forces dropped bombs and fired shells into the neighborhood during the first weeks of the 51-day war on Gaza.
on February 12, 2015
Amer Shomali discusses his film debut Wanted 18, including the filmmaking process, creative resistance during the first Palestinian Intifada, and why he chose talking cows as his protagonists. A Palestinian multidisciplinary artist, Amer Shomali uses painting, digital media, films, installations and comics as tools to explore and interact with the sociopolitical scene in Palestine.
on December 26, 2014
When Yasser Arafat died, 10 years ago today, he was the president of the Palestinian Authority, an institution that had already existed for five years longer than intended — and that still exists today. While hardly the legacy with which he is most readily identified, the PA is perhaps the product of Arafat's leadership that has the most ongoing impact on the lives of Palestinians today.
on November 12, 2014
Q&As
For context on recent violence and unrest in occupied East Jerusalem, the IMEU offers the following Q&A with Ingrid Jaradat Gassner of the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem.
on November 6, 2014