Martin Luther King Jr. In Palestine

[Eva Libre]

 

A Documentary project in Berkeley, CA by Connie Field

 

 

 

 

NON-VIOLENCE IN A CHANGING PALESTINIAN LANDSCAPE NOTE: IF YOU "LIKE" THIS PAGE,

 

PLEASE SHARE IT WITH YOUR NETWORKS! (And..consider donating, even just $1!)

 

In March of 2011 I went to Palestine with Clay Carson, who runs the Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute, to film his play about King performed by the Palestinian National Theater and an African-American gospel choir. It was presented to audiences all over the West Bank and it was an incredible journey! This is a great story that can reach new audiences who would not necessarily come see a film about Palestine, incorporating the inherent drama of the theatre and propelled by the foot-stomping rhythms of gospel music. It was an intense cultural exchange between two peoples encompassing the joy of new friendships, creative collaborations and eye opening experiences. No one who participated remained unchanged.

We traveled through the Holy Land that the Christian choir were so passionately excited to see, as they were introduced to the other side of the land where Jesus once walked: a man whose front yard has been bisected by the Security Wall and whose children have to play in the dust of its continued construction; the ease with which they as foreigners were able to pass through checkpoints while their Palestinian counterparts took hours to navigate the same distance; a home which had no water because a settlement had taken over their well, where Palestinian women teach them songs in Arabic and join them in singing American gospel songs. And yet, amidst the hardships of occupied life, the choir is greeted with food, humor, and generosity, a mixture that brought some of them to tears.

Firas Frah played Malcolm X in the play. September Penn from the choir.

We also captured the growing non-violent movement of young people in Palestine, who are much like their peers in Egypt and Tunisia -- bright, well-educated, social media savvy and deeply committed. They are on the move, changing hearts and minds.

 

In March, Hamsa (center) and his friends were on a hunger strike camped out in a tent in the central square of Ramallah.


Our film can be an effective way to bring a fresh approach to opening minds to the realities of Palestinian life under occupation and introducing people to the young Palestinians who are changing the landscape non-violently.

We feel this film needs to get done now. We need to go back to Palestine for one short final shoot and then edit the film. Your help can make this happen. We will then be able to complete the project sooner, getting the film out to the public as quick as we can.

Changes are sweeping across the Middle East! Can this be a time when a peaceful resolution can come to one of the most emotionally charged regions of the world? Can a story such as ours, told from a completely different perspective than has been told before, open hearts and minds? We think it can. So please join us.

FROM THE FILM

 

Fadi Quran and playwright Clay Carson.


Fadi Quran: I first came across Martin Luther King when I was in high school. We had a professor who was volunteering here to teach us English and he gave us a text to a Martin Luther King speech. And I was like ‘wow is he speaking to people in the U.S. or is he speaking to us?’

 

September Penn: When I would see pictures of Palestinians on television in the States there would be this look in their eye and I said, “Oh they’re just angry people". And then I get here, and the first person that I met I saw that look in her eye. But I came to discover that that look was not anger. That look was this deep, deep sorrow. A deep-seated sorrow that couldn’t be washed away.

 

Ramzi Maqdisi, who plays Martin Luther King Jr., and Aleta Hayes in Hebron.


Aleta Hayes: I was very hurt about that family in Hebron. Just to see the army there, and the settlers with M-16's, like they could've shot me. Or you. Or anybody right there. And how brave the family was to be there. I'm still worried about them, because it seems like, won't they be punished, that they bring these people to show that their water tank has been shot full of holes?

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A Documentary project in Berkeley, CA by Connie Field

 

[Irit Hakim-Keller]

Beautiful!!!

thanks for sharing .

[Béatrice LATEUR LACROIX]

Great +++ !

Step by step, Peace will unfold the world.

[Eva Libre]

An African-American gospel choir is the Greek chorus for a Palestinian play on Martin Luther King Jr. which tours the West Bank preaching nonviolence. The choir is apprehensive about working with Palestinians whose American media image is that of angry, violent terrorists. For the Palestinian actors, Americans are unconditional supporters of their occupiers. It is a personal and cultural exchange where, over the course of the journey, their ideas about each other are radically transformed. Happy to finally visit the Holy Land, the choir witnesses life in the occupied territories, perform in a unique theater inside a refugee camp run by Juliano Mer-Khamis using art as an alternative to violence, and meet Fadi Quran, a young leader of a nonviolent movement for justice. At the end of their tour reality will astonishingly mirror the play on MLK, a man who died for his beliefs.