16/05 Al-Nakba: Palestine at 65

Public Lecture by Dr. Ihab Saloul

This talk explores the historical narrative of al-Nakba (1948 Israeli independence, or ‘The Catastrophe’ as it is known in Palestine) and its significance to contemporary Palestinian culture and politics. 65 years after, how can we understand al-Nakba in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and in relation to the current political transformations in the Middle East at large?

Dr. Ihab Saloul is a postdoctoral fellow cultural heritage and identity at the University of Amsterdam, and a visiting professor of culture and politics at Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics, Freie Universität Berlin. He was a EUME-fellow at the Wissenschaftkolleg zu Berlin (The Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin), and taught previously comparative literature and media studies at Maastricht University. Saloul’s publications include Catastrophe and Exile in the Modern Palestinian Imagination: Telling Memories (Palgrave MacMillan, 2012), and Zoom In: Palestinian Refugees of 1948, Remembrances (The Republic of Letters, 2011).

16-05-2013
20:00 – 21:30
CREA, Nieuwe Achtergracht 168 in Amsterdam
Free for students, don’t forget your student ID!
Others €5,-
No reservations
Link to the facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/512253625489835

27/03 Sold Out: successful film-screening and discussion of ‘The Law in These Parts’

On Wednesday 27^th March, FFIPP in association with Palestine Link and Gate 48, held a film-screening of Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’s ‘The Law in These Parts’. The screening was followed by a discussion with two guests well acquainted with the question of the rule of law in the OPT and the issue of human rights – Orna Ben-Naftali (the Emile Zola Chair for Human Rights) and Nada Kiswanson van Hooydonk (EU Advocacy Office at Al Haq). The event was sold out and the venue was packed with people of all ages and professions keen to inform themselves of the intricacies of the legal system operating in the OPT.

The film provided a legal angle highlighting factual aspects of the conflict which are often overlooked, such as the two-tier legal framework operating in the OPT ensuring that settlers and Palestinians (often living as neighbours) are subject to different laws.  The film also shed light on the Occupier’s use of the old Ottoman Mawat Law in appropriating Palestinian land for Israeli settlers.

The film-screening was rounded off by Orna Ben-Naftali and Nada Kiswanson van Hooydonk who both gave short talks on their thoughts of the film and its intended message.  These talks then kicked off a discussion where members of the audience were invited to ask questions to the knowledgeable guests. The questions were insightful and covered topics ranging from the PLO’s newly acquired observer status in the UN, to more self-reflecting questions on the banality of evil and how it perpetuates political apathy.

Further debate and discussion continued at the De Balie bar and at the end of the evening, it was clear that people came away with new insights into the topic of Israel’s occupation.

FFIPP hopes that this event has opened people’s eyes to the legal reality of those living in the OPT and challenged the audience’s preconceptions about law and justice.

 

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27/03 Film screening “The Law in These Parts” and discussion at de Balie

On the 27th of March, FFIPP, in cooperation with Gate 48, Palestine Link and de Balie, organizes a film screening of the gripping documentary “The Law in These Parts”, a film by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz.

Afterwards, there will be a discussion on the execution of justice in the Occupied Palestinian Territories with:
Orna Ben-Naftali, the Emile Zola Chair for Human Rights, the Haim Striks School of Law, Israel, and
Nada Kiswanson van Hooydonk, EU Advocacy Officer at Al-Haq.
moderated by: Jurgen Maas, IKON-radio

 

 

Wednesday 27th of March, 20:00
De Balie Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10, Amsterdam
Tickets (Also available at the door)
Entrance: € 8.50, for students € 6,-. Free with a Cineville card!
Facebook event

“The untold story of Israel’s other justice system”
This revealing documentary investigates the justice of the legal system in the Occupied Palestinian Territories through interviews with the architects of this military legal system juxtaposed with historical footage. It provides a rare opportunity to ponder the banality of (judicial) evil; of lawyers as the willing executioners of power.

The Law In These Parts has won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival (2012), the Special Jury Prize in the International Feature Competition at Hot Docs Festival in Canada (2012), and the Special Jury Award in the Full Frame Documentary Festival (2012).

20/02 The absurdity of life in Hebron

On the 20^th of February FFIPP-NL organized its first event of 2013, a film screening of Esther Hertog’s documentary Soldier on the Roof. We were happy to see that a great number of people faced the cold and joined us at CREA to watch this remarkable work. The documentary showed the absurdity of life in Hebron by zooming in on the fiercely ideological settlers that reside in the city. Through Hertog’s conversations with settlers we were given a rare insight into their motives.

During the Q and A, Esther Hertog got the chance to explain some of the difficulties that arose in the process of making the film. In order to gain the trust of the settlers so that they would tolerate her in their midst she had to refrain from speaking to Palestinians. However, she expressed the hope that this does not prevent viewers from understanding the cruel consequences that the settlers’ presence has on the Palestinians in Hebron. We still got a clear sense of it in the images of children uttering hateful words about ‘Arabs’ and the shots of soldiers carrying out body searches of Palestinians.

The audience was really engaged and posed some thought-provoking questions. One issue addressed was whether it was appropriate to give the settlers a platform to promote their ideology. In answering Hertog referred to her struggle with this issue and her role as an anthropologist to expose the settler’s world-view in their own terms. Hertog hopes that her film, which will soon be shown in Tel Aviv, will raise awareness and generate a discussion among Israelis.

Towards the end of the session Esther revealed her intention to make a second documentary about Hebron, this time filming the life of Palestinians. We very much look forward to her future projects and will keenly invite her back to FFIPP-NL!

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Recruitment Open for Summer 2013 Internships in Israel/Palestine!

Internship in Israel & Palestine
Summer 2013
June 2nd – July 7th

Would you like to learn more about the Israeli Palestinian conflict, and obtain a perspective that goes beyond the media stories? Would you like to meet with human rights activists, settlers, representatives of NGO’s, journalists, refugees and other Palestinians and Israelis, who experience the conflict in their daily life? Would you like to live and work in Israel or the West Bank for a month? Apply for the FFIPP-summer internship 2013!

You can find more information under the heading “Summer Internship 2013″

Film screening “Soldier on the Roof” at CREA 20-02-2013

The multiple award-winning IDFA documentary Soldier on the Roof (Esther Hertog, 2012) shows the absurd reality of the West Bank city of Hebron, which is a holy place for Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Director and anthropologist Hertog lived for three years in the settlement in Hebron and recorded the daily lives of the 800 orthodox Jewish settlers protected by 2,000 soldiers living among 120,000 Palestinians. Regular conflicts all originate from one fundamental question: who has the right to claim the holy city of Hebron?
The documentary won the award for “Best Debut” and “Best Dutch Documentary” at IDFA 2012.

After the film screening, there will be a Q&A with director Esther Hertog.

Organized by the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (FFIPP)

20-02-2013
20:00
Free for students, others € 5,-
No reservations
Please, bring your student ID!

Link to the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/124574301045258/

Summer Internship Session 2012

In the summer of 2012, 27 students with various backgrounds traveled to Israel/Palestine to intern with Israeli and Palestinian organizations. The students came from different universities in France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Canada, the UK and the US. Four Dutch students took part in the internship session, including the current chair of FFIPP’s Dutch chapter Charlotte (22), MA student in Law and Politics at the VU in Amsterdam, and Nina (21), BA student in Sociology and Political Science at Amsterdam University College.

To better understand different layers of the ongoing conflict the students participated in an Orientation Week created by FFIPP. The Orientation Week, a seven day tour in Israel (including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa) and the Occupied Territories (including Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jayyous), brought the students to different organizations, activists and other actors in civil society. Charlotte explains that during the Orientation Week she met with settlers, journalists, Palestinians, left- and right wing Israelis and many activists and representatives of human rights NGO’s. The students had the opportunity to speak with a Palestinian businessman, students from Bir Zeit University, a professor from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Omar Barghouti, the founder of the BDS movement. In Hebron for example they were given a presentation by representatives of TIPH (Temporary International Presence Hebron) and went on a special tour through the South Hebron Hills with Breaking the Silence. Nina adds that the Orientation was an intense introduction to the complexity of the conflict, and that the conflict became a 24/7 experience. Nina states: “due to our busy schedule, our encounters with speakers and locations was sometimes too short to really feel satisfied – but luckily the orientation week was only an introduction, and during the internship we had the possibility to return to some of the wonderful places we had visited.”

After the Orientation week the interns traveled to their host organizations such as Project Hope in Nablus, the Alternative Information Center in Bethlehem, the Palestinian Working Women Society in Ramallah, Baladna in Haifa and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions in Jerusalem. Nina went to stay in Haifa where she interned with Mossawa, a Palestinian NGO that does advocacy work representing the Palestinian minority (20%) within the 1948 borders. Mossawa organizes a yearly summer camp for European and Palestinian students. Nina: “the first two weeks of my internship I helped with the preparations for the camp, and the second two weeks the camp took place and I could join. The camp was incredible, we traveled to numerous Palestinian villages throughout the country, from the Galilee in the north to a Bedouin village in the Naqab desert.” Charlotte interned with the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem and researched “self demolitions,” cases where Palestinians demolish their own homes as a result of ongoing pressure of the municipality, and the threat of having to pay fines and the demolition when they don’t do it themselves.

For both Charlotte and Nina their summer in Israel/Palestine has sparked a more longterm interest. Charlotte became the chair of FFIPP Netherlands, and is planning to write her MA thesis on Israel/Palestine. Nina, currently on a semester abroad in Canada has volunteered for the Palestine Film Festival in Toronto and intends to go back to Haifa after graduating next summer for an extended internship of six months with Mossawa. Charlotte and Nina are both part of the team that will organize the internship session of next summer as they hope to draw the attention of many others to the ongoing conflict.