WHEN
APRIL 30th through MAY 16th
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays @ 8pm
Sundays @ 3pm followed by an artist talkback with Jennifer

WHERE
Prop Theatre
3502 North Elston Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60618
773.539.7838

PRICE
Tickets are $15-$30
BUY TIX HERE

Oh well, at least it gives me hope that there are emerging voices working for justice in Israel. And makes me wonder why the translation for Popsicle is Eskimo?

Israeli film comparing Holocaust to occupation loses state funds
By Haaretz Service and City Mouse
1/25/10

The Israel Film Fund has ended its financial support for director Yonatan Segal’s new piece Odem, after learning that it compares Israel’s occupation of the West Bank to the Holocaust. Segal is best known as the star of the 1978 Israeli film Lemon Popsicle (Eskimo Lemon).

In an article published last Friday in Yedioth Ahronot, Israeli journalist Yair Lapid cited a passage from the marketing brochure for Odem, in which Segal wrote: “It took a lot to convince the Israel Film Fund that the occupation is worse than Israel has ever admitted too and that it is possible to compare the occupation to the Holocaust.”

Lapid took issue to this comment, and criticized the fact that such a film was receiving financial support from a government body. In the wake of Lapid’s article, the executive director of the Israel Film Fund announced that support for the film has been cut off.

Odem, which is currently being filmed, is a story that jumps in time and tells of two Palestinian women who decide to sneak into Jerusalem one night.

The Israel Film Fund pledged NIS 1.3 million for production of the film, and has already invested NIS 850,000 of that sum.

This morning, I pop open the interweb and read how France is moving forward to ban Islamic women’s face veils based on it being a “symbol of the repression of women, and… of extremist fundamentalism.”. Really? Okay clearly this is more about Islamophobia than France’s concern for women’s rights, but for a second let’s explore this idea. Now, I’m not Muslim, nor do I have any investment in veiling. But I do have an interest in women being able to wear whatever the hell they want to, without the government mandating what’s acceptable. Not only is this insulting to Muslim women, as if they need the Big Bad French government to step in and protect them from their own culture’s repression. White people save the day again….

Aside: This just makes me think of this hilarious Youtube video called White People to the Rescue, which I’ve posted a link to below.

But back to my point, maybe these women are capable of seeking their own way to fight oppression. Or maybe it is HOW they are fighting oppression–which is a view I find is rarely explored. I made a short doc about Arab women in NY right after 9-11, and  in it one woman said she started veiling because she felt disturbed by  men constantly ogling her on the streets of the city. Once she started wearing it, she felt the harassment was way diminished and she could move through her day feeling free.

Check out the recent appearance of  women-only pink taxis in Kuwait, equipped with magazines and mirrors, so that women can feel safe being ferried around by other women. In fact, there are women-only forms of public transportation in a number of countries including Brazil, Mexico, Japan, India and Egypt. And if they had them in NYC I might be tempted to take them, especially during the summer. The truth is that I wouldn’t mind having some women-only public spaces, beyond salons or spas.

And  no, I’m not saying all women find veiling freeing, or that segregated transportation is the ultimate solution. It just feels like it’s back to the Madonna-Whore all over again. Islamic women are the helpless victims to be saved or protected by men inside and outside their culture. And in the meantime, men around the world seem to think it’s okay to harrass women to the point that a dozen countries feel the need to separate men and women on busses and trains.

Obviously it’s a lot more complex and nuanced than the way it’s playing out in France and elsewhere and I don’t know what the answer is, but men in both the East and West clearly need a lesson on how to behave towards women.

Final SF Performances:
February 11-13, 2010
Thursday-Saturday at 8pm

Location:
Off Market Theaters
965 Mission Street (Between 5th and 6th St.)
San Francisco, CA 94103

Tickets available NOW on BrownPaperTickets
Don’t miss your last chance to see this smash hit show!

Hope to see all of you there.

Israeli vigilantes target young Arab-Jewish couples  
The Times
September 28, 2009
Sheera Frenkel in Pisgat Ze’ev

It’s past 10pm, but work has just begun for the group of vigilantes in a small white hatchback patrolling the streets of Pisgat Ze’ev — a Jewish settlement on the outskirts of east Jerusalem.

As the car crawls through the nearly empty streets, the men peer out at couples. They say they are experts at spotting those that don’t “match”.

“Stop, right there. Stop the car. Is he an Arab? That dark guy . . . If they are both Jewish, keep the car moving!” yells out ‘David’, a 31-year-old Jewish settler who does not use his real name.

For more than a decade, David has considered it his unofficial job to patrol the streets looking for mixed Arab-Jewish couples. “We are protecting the Jewish people, our traditions, our heritage. Some people just get mixed up. We talk to them, explain why it’s important for Jews to be with Jews,” he said.

His group, which works with police, goes by several names, including Fire for Judaism, is composed of up to 45 men and funded by private donations. Members say they are fighting a “growing epidemic” of Arab-Jewish dating and spend as many hours as they can on patrol.

Similar groups have formed across the country, including in the southern Negev city of Beersheba, and northern port of Haifa. In Petah Tikva, a blue-collar city in the centre of Israel, the municipality has formed a unit to discourage Arab-Jewish relationships.

In Pisgat Ze’ev, the growing number of Arab-Jewish couples is seen as the result of more Jewish settlements in Arab east Jerusalem.

“The problem is always with Jewish girls dating Arab men. The Arab guy comes and buys them things, treats them well. They fall for it. They can’t see what they are doing,” says David.

Sarah, who asked not to use her real name, said it is men like David who are the problem, not her Arab boyfriend, Zadar. “I’m not stupid, or gullible or looking for trouble. I’m a Jewish girl who happened to meet a guy I like, who happens to be Arab. It’s my business. We have to go other places to go on dates, places where these guys won’t find us,” she said.

In Petah Tikva, municipal workers said they only sought out under-age Arab-Jewish couples when asked to intervene by parents. “This is not a racist thing. Statistically, these girls wind up in trouble. We try to step in before real harm can be done by talking to the teens, making social workers available to them. We never use force,” a spokesman said.

David says that he too, will not use force but on a recent night out, it became clear that he was prepared to do just about anything else. At the start of his patrol he caught sight of a “known problem couple”. It was a young woman, stepping into a vehicle that he said was full of Arab men.

A car chase ensued through the windy mountain roads before the vehicle got away. David took down a licence plate number and called in the incident to the police. “I am doing this for her own good. She doesn’t know what she is getting into. It’s not like these guys are offering her a future.”

Another article by Jonathan Cook on the same subject.

ISRAELI COLLEGE CANCELS ACADEMIC OFFERING DUE TO TOO MANY ARAB ENROLLEES
Tikun Olam
Richard Silverstein

During the recent controversy regarding Neve Gordon’s L.A. Times op-ed supporting the BDS movement, one of the arguments offered by Israeli academic opponents was that a boycott would harm precisely those institutions within Israel doing the most on behalf of tolerance and co-existence between Jews and Arabs.  The following story will certainly give the lie to that argument.

Carmel closes academic program: too many Arab enrollees

This year, a new private Israeli academic institution launched, the Carmel Academic Center.  Among its offerings within the department of business administration was an accountancy concentration.  But one week before classes began, the school cancelled it.  Why?  Too many Arabs.  That’s right.  Only three Jews registered and the rest were Israeli Palestinians.  Not wanting to develop a reputation for being in bed with Arab lovers, the entrepreneur who founded the school pulled the plug. Here are some internal conversations published by the Alternative Information Center.  Israeli Channel 2 broke the original story:

READ MORE HERE

Posted in In the News ]]> http://ihearthamas.com/2009/09/29/too-cool-i-mean-arab-for-school/feed/ 0 ihearthamas carmel academic center http://ihearthamas.com/2009/08/14/google-palestine-is-not-the-bomb/ http://ihearthamas.com/2009/08/14/google-palestine-is-not-the-bomb/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:40:38 +0000 ihearthamas http://ihearthamas.com/?p=1139 ]]> Coincidence, poor decision making or just plan stupidity? You decide.
Well, at least they are acknowledging Palestine
Read the article below.

That Google Bomb Electromagnet Doodle Might Not Go Over So Well On Google Palestine. Wait, There’s a Google Palestine?
by Erick Schonfeld on August 14, 2009
Tech Crunch

The doodle for today’s Google logo might give a new meaning to the term “Google bomb.” While it is not actually a drawing of a bomb—it is an electromagnet in celebration of the birth of its inventor Hans Christian Ørsted—a lot of people might mistake it for a bomb. It has a wire and a clock timer (Update that’s actually a compass) and that magnet kind of looks like a stick of dynamite.

For most of the world, it is just another quirky Google doodle. But for people in Palestine, it might just seem in poor taste. Especially since this is one of the first things they are seeing on the new Google Palestine domain. Yes, there is now a separate domain for Google Palestine, it just launched yesterday. Welcome, Palestine!

Yeah, Google might want to try for a different doodle there.

The newest version, what I like to call 3.0, contains tons of new material. So if you’ve seen it already, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. And if you haven’t, you’re in for a treat!

WHEN:
EVERY Thursday and Saturday at 8pm
September 17-October 24

WHERE:
Off-Market Theaters
965 Misson St. Suite 205 2nd floor
SF, CA 94103

BUY TIX HERE

SAVE THE DATE for our big Sneak Peek & Launch party!
Thursday, September 10th
Space Gallery
1141 Polk Street
SF, CA 94109

Free Ticket Giveways! Food! Music! Drink Specials!
It’s a fundraiser for the show! More details coming next week.

The Zoo on the Road to Nablus
From Publishers Weekly
This engaging and deftly told book shines a light on a lesser-known victim of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Palestine’s last zoo, located in battle-ravaged Qalqilya, surrounded by Israel. British journalist Thomas recounts a year and a half in the life of the zoo, following zoo veterinarian Dr. Sami Khader’s dogged—often futile—attempts to transform a neglected menagerie into an institution of international caliber.

Donkey Business
The only zebra in Gaza.
By Sharon Weinberger
Slate.com
Thursday, July 23, 2009

GAZA—Something didn’t quite look right about the zebra, but it was hard to say exactly what. Of the several ramshackle zoos in Gaza, Marah, located not far from the Bureij refugee camp, is by far the cheeriest: The animals are lively, the enclosures clean, and children gather around the cage of a resting lion.

Then again, the competition is hardly stiff: The zoo in Rafah features dead animals left to rot in their cages; another animal park, situated in a densely populated neighborhood in Bureij, recently shut down amid financial difficulties (and after neighbors complained of the smell). A third, also in Bureij, is so short of funds that a fox is kept in a grocery cart with a board over the top.

Yet Marah, with its broken-down bumper cars and a pit filled with sadly deflated balls, had its own not-quite-right feel—particularly the zebra. Standing near the back of its cage, facing away from the spectators, the animal kept its head tucked down.

“It’s really a painted donkey,” admitted Mahmud Berghat, the director of Marah, when asked about the creature. Making a fake zebra isn’t easy—henna didn’t work and wood paint was deemed inhumane, so they finally settled on human hair dye. “We cut its hair short and then painted the stripes,” Berghat explained behind the closed door of his office.

Read more here

For the uninformed, kunafa is not only now the biggest (literally) but also the best dessert in the world. Take my word for it. Or better yet, the next time we hang, I’ll treat you to some.

Yes, I know $15,000 could have built schools, and supplied medicine Blahblahblah, but every once in a while it’s nice to hear that Palestinians are participating in the absurd and nonsensical joys in life as well. I wish someone had invited me. Check out these photos! Click for larger view.

See what I’m talking about below:
Huffington Post
Israel Road Signs To Read In Hebrew Only
07-13-09

In what is sure to be a controversial move, the Israeli Transport Authority announced a new policy on Monday whereby all road signs will read only in Hebrew, as opposed to the current standard that includes Hebrew, Arabic and English, the AFP reports. According to Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, the new policy is a tit-for-tat against Palestinians who do not use the Hebrew name when referring to certain Israeli towns. As Katz told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, “on Palestinian maps, Israeli towns are often still identified with the Arabic names used before the 1948 war.”

   An amazing map created by the French artist, Julien Bousac, showing the ongoing fragmentation of Palestinian communities in the West Bank, while juxtaposing the playful visual references of old school travel maps with the reality of daily life for Palestinians living under siege.

For  more about the artist’s intentions check out the article at Strange Maps.

Thanks to the guys at  Kabobfest  for bringing this to my attention.

A Key to the Map:

-Areas ‘under water’ strictly reflect C zones, plus the East Jerusalem area, i.e. areas that have officially remained under full Israeli control and occupation following the Oslo Agreements. These include all Israeli settlements and outposts as well as Palestinian populated areas.

-Urban areas are orange
-Nature reserves are shaded
-Zones of partial autonomy are dark green
-Total autonomy area are light green
-The blue warships are permanent Israeli checkpoints

Haaretz
IDF bans Palestinians from hosting pope next to West Bank fence
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
05/07/2009

A Palestinian official says the Palestinian Authority has scrapped plans to host Pope Benedict XVI next week on a stage near the West Bank separation fence.

Palestinians say they had hoped that receiving the pope next to a towering cement wall and military watchtower inside the Aida refugee camp would highlight their suffering under Israeli occupation.

But Palestinian lawmaker Essa Qaraqie said Thursday that the location had been changed to a United Nations school after Israeli military officials forbade them to erect the stage near the barrier. The pope’s convoy will, however, still pass close to the barrier.

We are pleased to be part of the Arab American Heritage Month Celebrations at Montgomery College. The event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

WHEN: Friday, April 24th at 7pm

WHERE: Montgomery College
Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus
Student Services Atrium
7625 Fenton Street
Takoma Park, MD
15 minutes from DC

Directions can be found HERE

HOW MUCH: Free
Open to the public, not suitable for children under 16

For the calendar of events for
Arab American Heritage Month at Montgomery College, Maryland

Hope to see you at the show. Support Palestinian artists!

Are we still trying to get Israel and Palestine to recognize each other’s existence? Are we really still trying to create a Two State Solution when by all accounts it is untenable, unrealistic and anachronistic? Are we still letting old men who remember this war and that grudge, stuck in old world thinking and values dictate the terms of the future?

Now I’m not saying that memories and history are unimportant; they should be recounted, honoured AND learned from. But if we did truly learn from these lessons and wounds, then we would demand a change. A huge sweeping, paradigm shift, people. We would give voice to the future, to the youth, to justice and creative, radical solutions. 

Here is a radical solution: I nominate me to negotiate peace for Palestine. Not some sad, old men who can’t get beyond their own outdated ideas. Me. Jennifer  (I Heart Pirates) Jajeh for chief negotiator. Okay assistant negotiator, fine. And I’ll leave the shirt at home.

Yeah, I like the ring of that…All in favor, say “Aye” (Don’t ask me why it’s not “I”. I thought it was wierd too, but I googled it just to be sure.)

So how you like me now?