More Than 65 Palestinian Filmmakers, Including Hany Abu Assad, Elia Suleiman and Farah Nabulsi, Sign Letter Accusing Hollywood of ‘Dehumanizing’ Palestinians

A group of almost 70 Palestinian filmmakers — including two-time Oscar nominee Hany Abu Assad, acclaimed director Elia Suleiman and recent BAFTA winner Farah Nabulsi — have signed a strongly-worded letter in which they accuse Hollywood of “dehumanizing” Palestinians on screen over decades, a factor they assert has helped enable the ongoing devastation in Gaza.

https://variety.com/2024/film/global/palestinian-filmmakers-accuse-hollywood-dehumanizing-gaza-israel-1236120786/

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

We, Palestinian filmmakers, appreciate and thank the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for standing up to pressure and insisting on freedom of expression by upholding Bisan Owda’s 2024 News and Documentary Emmy nomination for the documentary, “It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive.” 

This film is narrated by the award-winning and inspiring 25-year-old Palestinian journalist, Bisan Owda, who has risked her life to share with the world reports and stories about the resilience, resistance and survival of ordinary Palestinian families in the face of Israel’s ongoing, livestreamed genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip. 

Trying to censor Bisan’s voice is only the latest repressive attempt to deny Palestinians the right to reclaim our narrative, share our history, and in this case bring attention to the atrocities our people are facing in the hopes that we can bring an end to them. We well understand the power of image and cinema, and for far too long we have been outraged at the inhumanity and racism shown by some in the Western entertainment industry towards our people, even during this most difficult of times. 

Through our films, we have tried to present alternative narratives, depictions and images to reverse the stereotypical, dehumanizing “worthless, disposable beings” image which enables the whitewashing and/or justification of the crimes perpetrated for decades against Palestinians. But why must we always put on our “boxing gloves” to defend our art against ruthless censorship that targets us merely on the basis of our identity, not our creativity? 

We wholeheartedly welcomed the nomination of Bisan Owda’s film for an Emmy as an indication that, after so many years of Israel’s apartheid and settler-colonial rule over the Palestinian people, the relentless, decades-old dehumanization of Palestinians on small and big screens in the U.S., in Hollywood in particular, was beginning to give way to a more ethical stance. The censorship attempt against the film, though, was a reality check of sorts. We must still contend with and fiercely challenge the anti-Palestinian and generally anti-Arab racist propaganda that remains all too prevalent in Western entertainment media.  

Although we are deeply concerned at how this dehumanization is a danger to our very existence as Palestinians, we are cognizant of how it also puts many racialized communities around the world, including in the West, at risk of a similar fate as the “might makes right” credo prevails. 

We call on our international colleagues in the film industry, visionaries for the kind of world we would like to live in, to speak out against this genocide and the erasure, racism and censorship that enable it; to do everything humanly possible to stop and end complicity with this unspeakable horror; and to stand against working with production companies that are deeply complicit in dehumanizing Palestinians, or whitewashing and justifying Israel’s crimes against us. 

This has to stop. Now.

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From Ground Zero is a 2024 anthology film directed by 22 different Palestinian directors.^[1] The film is made up of 22 short films, including documentaries, fiction, animation and experimental films about the current situation of the people of Gaza  

• "Out Of Frame", Directed by Nidaa Abu Hasna
• "Hill Of Heaven", Directed by Kareem Satoum
• "Charm", Directed by Bashar Al-Balbeisi
• "Awakening", Directed by Mahdi Karirah
• "Jad and Natalie", Directed by Aws Al-Banna
• "No", Directed by Hana Awad
• "Everything is fine", Directed by Nidal Damo
• "Taxi Waneesa", Directed by E’temad Weshah
• "24 Hours", Directed by Alaa Damo
• "Selfies", Directed by Reema Mahmoud
• "No Signal", Directed by Muhammad Alshareef
• "Soft Skin", Directed by Khamees Masharawi
• "Flash Back", Directed by Islam Al Zrieai
• "Fragments", Directed by Basil Al-Maqousi
• "Offerings", Directed by Mustafa Al-Nabih
• "School Day", Directed by Ahmed Al-Danf
• "Farah and Meryam", Directed by Wissam Moussa
• "Overburden", Directed by Ala’a Ayob
• "The Teacher", Directed by Tamer Najm
• "Recycling", Directed by Rabab Khamees
• "Echo", Directed by Mustafa Kallab
• "Sorry Cinema", Directed by Ahmad Hassouna