New Films, Videos and Books on Islam, Israel-Palestine, and the Mideast

by Betsy Barlow

“On the Edge of Peace” is an Israeli-Palestinian co-production which chronicles the first year of the implementation of the Israeli-Palestinian accords as experienced by both Palestinians and Israelis from all walks of life. Three Palestinians and three Israelis were given video cameras to document over a period of six months their lives and the lives of their communities. What results is an extremely moving story of life during turbulent times: the signing of the peace accords, the delay of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the Hebron massacre and finally the arrival of Yasser Arafat in Gaza. The film was directed by Ilan Ziv, an Israeli filmmaker who also has directed “Yellow Wasps,” about ethnic cleansing in Eastern Bosnia, completed in 1995, “People Power,” about nonviolence as a political strategy, “Consuming Hunger,” about how the Ethiopian famine was portrayed on Western television, and “Shrine under Siege,” a documentary exploring the conspiracy between Messianic Christians and militant Jews to build the Third Jewish Temple on the site of Islam’s third holiest shrine.

“On the Edge of Peace” is available from Tamouz Media, 123 West 93rd Street, Suite 5B, New York, NY 10025; fax (212) 666-2686.

“The Fundamental Question,” produced by Ahmad Jamal and edited by Andrew Mason for Channel 4 in England, is an excellent film. It soars beyond the puerile and silly PBS production by Stephen Emerson of “Jihad in America.” This is not the only set of films on similar topics in which PBS comes out the loser. “The Fundamental Question,” a 65-minute film, is divided into three parts, which makes it easier for classroom use. There also are some discussion questions provided.

The first section (28 minutes) concentrates on Muslim movements in Egypt. To set the context, the filmmakers explain the recruitment of young Muslim men after 1979 to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. This recruitment was encouraged by the governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with U.S. blessing. Sheikh Omar Abdelrahman, suspected of involvement in the killing of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and later in the World Trade Center bombing, was released from detention in Egypt to go to Afghanistan to issue a fatwa to encourage Muslim resistance to the Soviets. At the end of the Afghan fighting, we learn that the Muslim fighters felt deceived. They had been told they were fighting for Islam, but it became apparent that they were simply being used for U.S. strategic purposes. As they drifted home to Algeria, Egypt and Sudan, or to conflicts in Lebanon, Bosnia and Kashmir, they infected others with their attitudes.

Islamists flourish when governments fail to deliver what people need.

In the second section (17 minutes) we see that fundamentalism flourishes also in secular states such as Iraq, Algeria, Syria and Libya. Terrorists have murdered over 4,000 people; victims have included government employees, intellectuals, foreigners, and women who were not wearing the chador.

Even in Turkey, perhaps the most secular country in the Muslim world, economic problems have stimulated a challenge to the Kemalist system. Writer Aziz Nesin, who survived an attempt on his life, criticizes the Islamist program. Georgetown University professor John Esposito points out that Islamists flourish when governments fail to deliver what people need.

The third section (20 minutes) highlights Jordan, where Islamists work within the parliamentary system. The Islamists get support by running good schools and distributing food and clothes. Yet appalling conditions, particularly in some Palestinian refugee camps, contribute to despair and extremism.

The video ends with a series of considered opinions about the nature of the conflict between fundamentalists and secularizers, and the probable future.

The video is now available from Landmark Media, 3450 Slade Run Drive, Falls Church, VA 22042; fax (703) 536-9540; e-mail: landmrkmed@aol.com

Films on Human Rights

A number of Middle Eastern films were presented at the Seventh Annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival held at Lincoln Center, 165 W. 65th St., New York, from June 16-26. Among 41 films and videos on humans rights issues from around the world were:

“Intezaar” (Waiting) by Rashid Maharawi, 1995, a 26-minute documentary. A critical, personal and provocative scrutiny of the Palestinian refugee camps established in 1948 as a temporary solution to a humanitarian crisis.

“On the Edge of Peace,” by Ilan Ziv, mentioned above.

“Tale of Three Jewels,” by Michel Khleifi, 1995. A modern fable of the world of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza during the period of the intifada. In his quest to obtain the hand of a young girl the hero must discover three lost diamonds. He not only discovers the diamonds, but the meaning of life in an embattled land.

“119 Bullets + Three,” by Yeud Levanson, 1996. An explosive political documentary that addresses the conflict between the secular Israelis and the Jewish religious right from the Hebron Mosque Massacre in 1994 to the 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

“All Hell Broke Loose,” by Amir Feldman, 1995. A timely and highly stylized look at the survivors of a car-bomb attack on a bus in northern Israel. One year after the bombing, the filmmaker met with Jews and Arabs affected by the explosions. The film’s unique rhythm highlights how the trauma of this event stimulated racism and prejudice among some while leading to expressions of tolerance and forgiveness in others.

“Forbidden Marriages in the Holy Land” by Michel Khleifi, 1995. A frank and sensitive appeal for understanding among the three religions of the region through a humorous look at mixed marriages between partners of different religious and ethnic groups in Israeli and Palestinian society.

“You, Me, Jerusalem,” by Micha X. Peled and George Khleifi, 1995. An Israeli-Palestinian co-production follows an exhausting 24-hour shift of an all-volunteer ambulance crew, composed of both Palestinians and Israelis. The demands of the job require the crew to overlook their ideological differences and work as a team.

“Words of Writers” with “Theater of Life,” by Amon Gitai, 1994. Two delightful films on the notion that individuals can constructively work with one another through the arts and begin to build a structure for peaceful coexistence. The first film presents Israeli and Palestinian writers reciting their poetry in the midst of spectacular landscapes. The second portrays a children’s theater and a mixed women’s dance company.

New Books

The World Bank has published Claiming the Future: Choosing Prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa, a study which argues that by 2010 the countries of the Middle East and North Africa have the potential to double incomes, increase life expectancy by close to 10 years, and cut illiteracy and infant mortality by almost half. During the 1960-85 period, the book argues, the MENA region outperformed all other regions except East Asia in income growth and the equality of income distribution. However, the authors claim, this was the result of easier circumstances, not the statist policies of the various countries. To achieve success in the future, they argue that four measures are essential: (1) promoting non-oil exports, (2) making the private sector more efficient, (3) producing more skilled and flexible workers, and (4) reducing poverty through faster growth.

Copies of the report (in English) or of the executive summary (in French and Arabic) can be obtained from Jeannie Yamine, Room H-7085, World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433.

In The Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution After the Cold War (Brookings Institution, 1995, 536 pp.), Susan Woodward, senior fellow in the Brookings Foreign Policy Studies Program, argues that policies of the international agencies like the IMF for then-Yugoslavia were partly responsible for the Bosnia tragedy. Such agencies pressured Yugoslavia to transform itself rapidly from a socialist society to a market economy and democracy, when the country was incapable of marshaling an adequate response. These stiff economic and political reforms, forced on Yugoslavia in return for continued IMF support, exacerbated the divisions among the six republics. To the author, the market reforms, privatization, and slashed budgets demanded of an unstable country by foreign creditors and by Western governments virtually asked for political suicide. She also traces the rise of demagoguery, the diminished strategic importance of the area to the U.S., and the feeble, slow and confused response by the West to the developing tragedy.

The Institute for Palestine Studies is publishing a series of papers on “final status” issues. Now in print is Geoffrey Aronson’s Settlements and the Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations: An Overview. The work contains chapters on the Idea of Settlement in Israeli Policy; Settling Jerusalem; the Oslo Process and Settlement; and U.S. Policy and Settlements. Also included are settlement maps of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, and charts of the population as of 1993. The price is $4.95. Studies slated for publication in mid-summer are Salim Tamari’s Negotiation from Madrid to Oslo and Elia Zureik’s Palestinian Refugees: A NegotiationsPrimer. Books scheduled for release by September are Sharif Elmusa’s The Palestinian-Israeli Water Negotiations and Ahmad Khalidi’s Borders and Security.

To order these books, contact the Institute of Palestine Studies, 3501 M St. NW, Washington, DC 20007, phone (202) 342-3990 or (800) 874-3614.

Conferences

AWAIR will be conducting a summer institute on Islam, titled “Understanding Islam Through Its Sacred Tests and Visual Arts.” The one-week program is offered Aug. 12-19 as a part of the summer lineup of courses to be offered at Ghost Ranch, the home of Georgia O’Keefe and now a Presbyterian conference site in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Dr. Amina Wadud-Muhsin of Virginia Commonwealth University, and the author of Qur’an and Woman, is a founding member of Sisters in Islam (during her tenure at the Islamic University of Kuala Lumpur) and represented that organization at the Women’s Conference in Beijing. She will be addressing such topics as “Texts, Tradition and the Female Experience” and “Islam and Social Justice: Race, Class and Gender.”

Joining her and Audrey Shabbas in presenting the course will be Islamic artist Sylvia Godlas, who was a member of the design team responsible for the restoration work and installation of 26 new domes in the Prophet’s Mosque in Medinah, Saudi Arabia. She is the author of the newest AWAIR curriculum, Doorways to Islamic Art. Through hands-on experiences in the visual arts, participants will come to understand what is “Islamic” about the art; how art serves as a mirror for Islamic world views; how art becomes a metaphor for the framework and structure that allows for a liberating spirituality.

There is no application process for this seminar. Simply secure your spot (space is limited) by sending your $150 registration fee to Ghost Ranch, HC 77, Box 11, Abiquiu, NM 87510-4519. Ghost Ranch provides full room and board for $295 per week (children at half that cost). Here is a summer vacation for the entire family with something extra! Information about course content: AWAIR (510) 704-0517; about facilities and lodging: Ghost Ranch (505) 685-4333.

Abiquiu will also be the site of another institute on Islam and Islamic history. Karima Diane Alavi, a teacher in the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, will direct two sessions of two weeks each, July 15-26 and Aug. 5-16. Registration now is closed for the summer of 1996, but for information about future programs, contact Dar al-Islam, P.O. Box 180, Abiquiu, NM 87510.

Tangiers, Morocco is the site of an Arab-U.S. Association for Communication Educators conference Sept. 9-11 on “Teaching: Past Performance and Strategies for the Future.” The conference, hosted by the King Fahd School for Translation, will take place in the Sol Azur seaside hotel. Registration is $150, which includes three days’ room and full board. For further information, contact Dr. Richard Welch, Program Coordinator, Kennesaw State College, 1000 Chastain Road, Kennesaw, GA 30144, fax (770) 423-6740.

A conference on “Women in Jewish Life and Culture” will be held April 6-8, 1997 at the University of Arizona. Among the listed areas of interest are “Israel and the Middle East.” Deadline for submission of papers for the conference is Oct. 15, 1996. Send one-page abstract (original and four copies) and C.V. to Esther Fuchs, Program Chair, Judaic Studies, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210080, Tuscon, AZ 85721-0080.

Speaking at Brown University in May, the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims, called for a bridge between Islam and the West. In his remarks, the Aga Khan sought to correct a misperception of Islam which has become rampant in the West. He stated emphatically that “violence is not a function of the faith” but rather an effect of demographic, economic and political problems in the Muslim world leading to civil unrest and discontent. “Today in the Occident,” said the Aga Khan, “the Muslim world is deeply misunderstood by most. The West knows little about its diversity, about the religion or the principles which unite it, about its brilliant past or its recent trajectory through history.”

The Aga Khan noted that universities in the West can help “build a bridge across the gulf of knowledge which separates the Islamic world from the West.” The Ismaili leader was invited to Brown University to receive the degree of Doctor of Laws for “service to Islam and all humankind.”