non-violent protest

As many of you might have read a few weeks ago, a German-Egyptian activist named Philip Rizk was taken by Egyptian state security after organizing a peaceful march in support of Gaza. Read about it here. In any event, Rizk, who is also a blogger, made a documentary about Gaza after living there for two years. That film, "Palestinian Life: Village Stories of Sumoud and Non-Violent Resistance," was screened last night at AUC's old campus in Tahrir Square. Rizk, who was returned home last week, was missing for a few days when lots of people were speculating about his disappearance. His story is pretty well known in Cairo, so it was also noteworthy that he showed up to introduce his film and take questions at the end. He didn't endear himself to the Egyptian government too much with all his activism about Gaza. He criticized Israel for the attacks, but also the Egyptian government for not doing enough to help.

Anyway, he's obviously no Michael Moore, but I thought the film was interesting. The screening was packed (people were sitting on the floor and on the stairs), and there was a Q&A portion after the 30-minute documentary. As Rizk noted during the Q&A, the images that most often make it into the mainstream media are violent ones: Palestinian men with guns and keffiyahs, Israeli soldiers with guns, bloody shooting victims, homes reduced to rubble, the aftermath of a suicide bomb. He said he wanted to highlight the lives of ordinary Palestinians -- these are farmers and goat herders who live in small villages (or caves, in one example) and whose lives have been touched by a violent conflict they have done their best to avoid. The Arabic word in the title, sumoud, refers to a kind of steadfastness. It's a way of saying that their resistance is to keep living, to keep doing what they have always done and not led themselves be goaded into fighting. It's classic non-violent resistance.

And I, hippie-camp-attending, peace-loving, bleeding heart liberal that I am, thought that was a great focus for the film. A lot of the West regards Palestinians as nothing but jihadists, and Gaza as nothing but a breeding ground for malcontented future terrorists. I don't think the film made any points that were particularly surprising (these people have hard lives, have been screwed over by multiple governments including their own, and there is no real end in sight, etc.), but that doesn't mean it was less powerful.

I was particularly intrigued by one part of the film where Rizk highlighted the actions of B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization. They have an initiative called "Shooting Back," where Israeli activists give video cameras (and lessons on how to use them) to Palestinians in the West Bank and then instruct them to film abuses by local Israeli settlers if they see any. One of those film clips is in the movie, and it shows a few settlers with sticks (or baseball bats or something) beating up an elderly Palestinian woman in her field for no reason at all. It's a little wobbly and grainy, but the images are pretty disturbing nonetheless.

Some parts of the film were a little funny, whether intentionally or not (one enterprising Palestinian family took leftover parts from bombs and turned them into festive flowerpots), but the real winners came during the Q&A. One questioner mentioned that he would be in Gaza for three days on business (what business trip takes place in Gaza these days, I have no idea), and asked what did Rizk recommend he see if he had only three days in Gaza? I don't know if he meant to be funny, but really...that's your question?

And most disturbingly for me, though this film was obviously made with the best intentions, for me it raises more questions than it answers. But those musings will be another post for another time.