Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August 2009, pages 53-54
Music & Arts
Mount Mercy College Hosts “Palestine 101: A One-Day Film Festival”
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A COALITION of individuals and organizations presented “Palestine 101: A One-Day Film Festival” at Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, IA on Saturday, May 2.
“We were trying to think of ways to continue to get the word out about events in Gaza, and we approached Dr. Mohammad Chaichian, who teaches here at Mount Mercy,” said Robin Kash, who helped plan the event. “We discovered that Dr. Chaichian planned to work with some of his students to develop solutions to the conflict and to imagine ways to do that,” said Kash, who noted that the discussion resulted in greater community involvement and plans for the film festival.
Kash placed the film festival within the larger context of initiatives through which Iowa peace and social justice activists are addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, and the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“This is just part of a larger effort to ”˜keep on keeping on’ addressing the issue here in Cedar Rapids and Eastern Iowa,” Kash explained.
“We’ve coupled this with regular visits to the offices of [Sen. Tom] Harkin [D-IA], [Sen. Chuck] Grassley [R-IA], and [Rep. Dave] Loebsack [D-IA]. We go to them with an issue each month,” said Kash.
Organizers filled the day-long film festival with information and activity. The program included six video presentations, lunch, a 45-minute group discussion, and closing remarks by Dr. Jeremy Brigham of Kirkwood Community College.
The list of video presentations included “Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land: U.S. Media and the Palestinian Conflict” (2002); “Beyond the Mirage” (2002); “On the Ground: Witness, Resist, Rebuild” (2003); “The Iron Wall” (2005); “Off the Charts: An American Journalist Visits Palestine” (2006); and “Searching for Peace in the Middle East” (2006).
During the discussion led by Jason Weeks, Mike Rasmussen and Pat Minor, questions and comments suggested that many in the audience were deeply moved by the plight of the Palestinians as revealed in the video presentations.
The event was co-sponsored by the Sociology and International Studies Programs at Mount Mercy College, Joe and Liala Aossey, Robin Kash, Grande Avenue Productions, People for Justice in Palestine (Iowa City), and the Muslim American Society of Cedar Rapids.
—Michael Gillespie
