FEBRUARY 18 , 2009

Bethlehem University professor wins dubai film award

By ronza al-madbouh (bu '09)

The stems of the cactus remained to witness what happened.  No matter how many times they were uprooted, the cacti continued to grow back.  In the former Palestinian villages of Latroun, they are a reminder of the existence of Palestinians once there.

The cactus, a strong metaphor for Palestinians, is prominent in a new documentary shot by a Bethlehem University lecturer, which recently won an international film award. 

The 42-min film, Memory of the Cactus, directed by Hanna Musleh, a lecturer in cinema, history and anthropology, has recently won the first prize in the Arabic Documentary category at the 5th Annual Dubai International Film Festival.

Alongside his teaching duties, Mr. Musleh produces documentaries for various local human rights organizations around issues such as the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and its affect on Palestinians, women, and other marginalized groups. So far, he has worked on 17 documentary films.

Memory of the Cactus takes on the topic of the Israeli military’s 1967 devastation of three Palestinian villages of the Latroun area in the West Bank. “It was an ethnic cleansing in those areas as well as what happened to the Palestinians in the year 1948,” says Mr. Musleh.

In 1948, after the United Nations partition plan created the state of Israel, more than 750,000 Palestinians were displaced or expelled from areas they had been promised under the UN plan.  This expulsion, which involved several massacres of Palestinians, is now commonly referred to as a coordinated ethnic cleansing. 

Later, in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, more than 400,000 more Palestinians were displaced and the Israeli government began its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which continues to this day.  Badil, a resource center for Palestinian refugee rights, estimates that today more than three quarters of Palestinians are displaced. 

For his documentary, Mr. Musleh chose two symbolic real life journeys to echo the historical events which the Palestinians underwent in 1948 and 1967 after Israeli demolition of their villages. 

Mr. Musleh said these two personal journeys reflect the inner human self.  As well, he said the film “clinches the refugee’s rights not only as a collective right, but also as an individual right to all refugees. It also nails down the Palestinian historical existence.”

Hanna decided on Memory of the Cactus to be the metaphoric title to his film for several reasons.  For one, because the cactus is used by Palestinian villagers as an barrier to detach one plot of land from another. Moreover, the cactus is connected to Palestinian lands and memories; in addition to its hardiness and its ability to grow again even when it is uprooted. Thus, Aisha Um Najeh, a character in Mr. Musleh’s film, is like the cactus whose memories are tied in her village and land.

Hers is the first journey in Memory of the Cactus.  Aisha, a Palestinian from Yalo village of Latroun, was forced by Israelis to leave her village and her elderly mother behind.  As well, the other villagers were also forced from their homes, while the elderly and handicapped were left behind. Until now, no one knows the destiny of these old and disabled people. Aisha’s husband was murdered by the Israelis while he was bringing food and clothes for his homeless children and wife back to his village.

Aisha had no choice other than to rush to the Kalandia refugee camp and join the other Palestinian refugees who were there as a result of the catastrophe of 1948 and 1967.  Aisha later gave birth to a boy in Kalandia refugee camp, but unfortunately her baby died because there was no medical services and not enough food in the camp.

The second journey in the documentary follows a group of Israelis visiting Canada Park, a recreational area near Jerusalem which was established with funds from some members of the Canadian Jewish community following the ethnic cleansing of the Latroun villages. The Israeli group visits the area of Canada Park and find remains of the destroyed villages, eventually recovering the truth of what had happened to the three villages of Latroun.

People from all over the world watched the film at the festival in Dubai, and Mr. Musleh said the reaction was very positive.  He said many people articulated their admiration and thanks to him for producing a film that reflects the historical agony of Palestinians and refugees.

"Very few films have tackled the ethnic cleansing of 1967," comments Mr. Walid Atallah, a lecturer in history and political science at Bethlehem University, "and many think that there wasn't as much destruction and ethnic cleansing as the catastrophe of 1948. However, this film succeeded in documenting the ethnic cleansing of 1967 through Aisha’s narration, which tells the history of the Palestinian nation and their own vision of the ethnic cleansing that happened to them in 1948 and 1967."

 Mr. Atallah added that the film is also special because Mr. Musleh interviewed Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, one of few Israelis who speak frankly and honestly about the destruction of the Palestinian villages and the ethnic cleansing caused by Israeli military to Palestinians in 1948 and 1967. Pappe is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject and has written a book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, which deals with the events around the Palestinian expulsion of 1948.  In it, he details how early Zionist leaders planned and coordinated a campaign of ethnic cleansing, in direct violation of international law.