A pro-Palestinian view 
February 23, 2009 by Kostan Lathouris
Muslim Student Association screening of documentary goes smoothly despite controversial topic
President Bir Azam speaks at the Muslim Student Organization’s screening and discussion of “Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Majority.” The film seeks to show the average American a rarely side of clashes in the Middle East. Photo by: Amy Adler
“This movie is a drop in the ocean of reality…and we don’t even know the half of it,” said Abdallah Omeish, producer of “Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Majority” after the Muslim Student Association hosted a screening of the documentary last Wednesday. As the lights in the theater re-ignited, so did discussion on a familiar topic from an unfamiliar perspective.
The beginning images of “Occupation 101” are familiar: Northern Irish protestors on Bloody Sunday; Algerian civil rights activists filing in the streets of Algiers; Indian freedom speakers demonstrating nonviolent civil disobedience; American civil rights leaders following a dream of justice; South Africans protecting a future separate from Apartheid. These historical images were followed by one that reflects a modern struggle: a Palestinian child throwing a rock at the Israeli tank in front of him. This picture offers the movie’s first glimpse at the world Omeish seeks to illuminate.
The MSA screened Abdallah Omeish’s film “Occupation 101,” hoping to spread knowledge and peace. Photo by: Amy Adler
“Occupation 101” was designed to help mitigate what the producer sees as the reasons for continued conflict in Israel. According to Omeish, “We have not found a peaceful solution yet because we have not focused on the real issues.”
Bir Azam, president of the MSA agreed. “If you want to create peace, you have to educate people.”
Omeish’s goal is “to begin dialogue within the U.S.” He said, “It’s not fair for Americans to pay for something illegal under international law, which also causes security problems in the U.S.”
“The average American needs to watch this – the one who is paying the taxes and who has never been to the region. They should know about where their money is going and then they should decide if it is right,” Omeish said.
The event drew students of many different races, religions and ethnicities. The MSA brought Omeish face to face with his target audience: the average American.
Hannah Vile, a member of the Jewish student group Hillel, explained why she attended the event.
“I just think there’s two sides. You always hear the Israel side but you never hear the Palestine side.”
Attendees watched a documentary that chronicled the history of Palestinian and Israeli relations, focusing on what the director described as the illegal oppression of Palestinians through use of extant Israeli settlement policies designed to gradually expand the Israeli state. Omeish criticizes these policies for violating the Fourth Geneva Convention and for legitimizing what the film describes as the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Omeish targeted the U.S. audience because he believes most of them are unaware of the conditions of life in the occupied Palestinian territories. “They see the reaction, but they don’t see the why. Why is somebody strapping a bomb? Why are rockets being fired from Gaza? This is not happening out of boredom,” he said.
The producer believes his film can change public opinion and help progress toward peace in the Middle East by replacing ignorance with awareness and concern.
“The average American is the main mechanism of change and if they don’t know about the situation then how can they convince their government to take a stand?” he said.
“Change is not going to come from the top to the bottom; it is going to come from the bottom to the top and if we don’t demand that our representatives take action, they won’t.”
According to Omeish, responses and discussion from the screening’s attendees yielded a response consistent with others he has received. He noted that some viewers “have preconceived notions and come in with negative attitudes,” but added, “The overwhelming response from the American people has been positive, with even some people apologizing for not knowing what their tax dollars were paying for.”
Student Ynnez Yapanto praised the documentary’s use of “educated people with first hand experiences.”
“After talking to the producer I really felt that his main purpose was to just educate, not to make people choose sides,” Nushin Zarrabi said.
“He just wanted to educate the public and I admire that.”
Omeish said he believes “Occupation 101” will continue to serve its purpose just as it did at MSA’s screening and discussion because “the truth resonates in a very powerful way. It resonates in your heart.”
The full version of ”Operation 101″ can be found here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2451908450811690589
Please note that this link leads to a website outside of The Rebel Yell and we take no responsibilty for the contents found therein.
Hannah’s comment that “You always hear the Israel side but you never hear the Palestine side.” is very true.
As Americans we are often quick to look at issues in black and white terms. “you are either with us or against us,” but there are two sides to all conflicts, not a right side and a wrong side, just two individual and unique sides. The more we know about both sides the better we can help resolve the conflict, if that’s what we, Americans, really want o do.
A lot of criticism of Israel is silenced with charges of anti-semitism. But to be against Isreal actions is not to be against the Jewish faith or people. Israel, at best, is a subset of Jews worldwide, not representative of all Jews. Their policies and concerns are particular to their region and their lives. And, I don’t think they are handling it very well at all.
America spends a lot of money supporting Israel each year, in our current economic situation it might be wise to withdraw some of that financial support for other people’s conflicts and support our own.
I did not get a chance to attend, but this film is a wonderful chance to see the other side of a far outweighed conversation in American media.
The greatest obstacle to discussing these issues clearly and openly has been the effort to label anybody who speaks out against the policies and action of Israel is anti-Semitic. The logic behind using this powerful buzz word is ridiculous. It’s not too far from calling somebody anti-American because they criticize how the government does things.
As long as criticism, fruitful criticism, is shut out by the media and by political pressure groups such as AIPAC, we will never have a decent dialogue on the issue. It will simply remain a pro-Israel monologue.
We have to face with an oppressive regime of apartheid exists. Silence is akin to support. Apartheid is South Africa may have never ended if the voices of the world did not come together in unison to stop it. And the same must be done here.
I commend thus who engage is dialogue about the issue. I commend those who have taken a most active stance such as the student at NYU. Get the word out.
[...] A RESPONSE TO ’A PRO-PALESTINIAN VIEW ‘(FEB. 23, 2009) [...]
Is it sad that I knew exactly who was writing the above post two sentences into it. Michael Roitman, you have become almost the unsaid leader of pro-Israeli views on campus.
That being said, I could almost respect your arguments, if they weren’t based on purile “facts”, that you always bring up:
- population numbers
- Hamas, and the spectre of terrorism
- the land area of Israel
-quotes from people, probably quotes that are screened from some website that claims itself to be a watchdog for anti-Semitism
All of which could be looked up on Wikipedia.
My good sir, if there is anybody on campus who could be pointed to as being ignorant, or a polemic, it is you.
Who was one of the main instigators of the throwing out of Rebelyell newspapers and the boycotting of the Rebelyell when you felt they issued anti-Semetic statements? Statements which were, by the way, not pro or anti any against, just purely empirical.
Who shuts down any attempt at dialogue, by issuing a monologue of buzz words such as “anti-Semitism”, in order to try your harder to character assassinate a worhty oppenent?
The fact of the matter is Michael, I have sat back for a while now and watched you do your thing. And as much I as try not to attack people, but rather abstract ideas, it is people that keep open dialogue from happening. But make no mistake about it, there are people like you on BOTH sides of this issue, you just represent one of them.
The biggest lesson that YOU and others shoudl take away from the Holocaust is just how much wrong and evil humans can perpetrate when they view themselves as being on the “right side” of an issue, and have the power to defend that side.
Because at the base of all of our politics, rhetoric, and quite frankly BS…there are people who suffer the consequences.