More than 65 Palestinian filmmakers, including Hany Abu Assad, Elia Suleiman and Farah Nabulsi, sign letter accusing Hollywood of ‘dehumanizing’ Palestinians

A group of nearly 70 Palestinian filmmakers — including two-time Oscar nominee Hany Abu Assad, the acclaimed Elijah Suleiman and recent BAFTA (British Academy Film Award) winner Farah Nabulsi — have signed a strong and forceful letter accusing Hollywood of “dehumanizing” Palestinians on screen for decades, a factor the signatories say has contributed to the ongoing devastation in Gaza .

The letter – also signed by multiple award winners such as Michel Khleifi, Mai Masri, and Najwa Najjar but also by the 22 filmmakers behind the compilation of short films, “From Ground Zero”, a current candidate for Palestine at the Oscars — express their outrage and denounce “the inhumanity and racism shown towards our people by some in the Western entertainment industry, even in these most trying times.”

This letter marks the first collective initiative by Palestinian filmmakers since the horrific events of October 7. These events, in which the terrorist group Hamas – which rules Gaza – killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostages, were followed by the ongoing violent Israeli reprisals against Gaza, which have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians (according to the Palestinian Health Authority) and caused a humanitarian crisis affecting the entire territory.

Despite its fierce criticism of Hollywood, the letter thanks the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for “resisting pressure and insisting on freedom of expression” by refusing attempts to disqualify a documentary about Gaza to prevent its nomination for the 2024 Emmy Awards.

Palestinian journalist, activist and filmmaker Bisan Owda’s Peabody Award-winning film “It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive,” a film that chronicles her family’s plight as they flee Israeli bombings of their home, is nominated for the Emmy Awards News and Documentary Emmys for Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Short Form (The award recognizes the best documentary filming of a short-form news report.) However, a U.S.-based pro-Israel group had called for the nomination to be rescinded, in a letter signed by figures including Debra Messing, Sherry Lansing, Rick Rosen and Haim Saba accusing Owda of having ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

In response, NATAS President Adam Sharp said Owda’s appointment would not be rescinded, writing in a letter that the organization had been “unable to corroborate these reports” of Owda’s alleged involvement in any terrorist enterprise and “has found no grounds, to date, to overrule the editorial judgment of independent journalists who have examined the facts.”

Here is the letter followed by the list of signatory Palestinian filmmakers:

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

This film is narrated by 25-year-old Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, an award-winning colleague and inspiration to all, who risked her life to share with the world reports and stories of the resilience, resistance and survival of ordinary Palestinian families in the face of the ongoing Israeli genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip – a genocide broadcast live for all to see.

Attempting to censor Bisan’s voice is just the latest repressive attempt to deny the Palestinian people the right to reclaim their narrative, to share their story, and in this case, to draw attention to the atrocities our people face, in the hope that we can put an end to them. We know the power of image and film, and for far too long, we have been outraged by the inhumanity and racism that some in the Western entertainment industry have shown towards our people, even in these most trying times.

Through our films, we have attempted to present “other” narratives, representations and images in the hope of thereby reversing this stereotypical and dehumanizing image of “worthless and disposable beings”, an image that serves to whitewash and/or justify the crimes committed for decades against the Palestinian people. But why, again and again, this obligation to put on our “boxing gloves” to defend our art against a merciless censorship that targets us solely on the basis of our identity, and not on the only expressions of our creativity?

We welcomed the Emmy nomination of Bisan Owda’s film, as it seemed to indicate that after so many years of apartheid and Israeli colonial domination of the Palestinian people, the decades-long dehumanization of the Palestinian people—on the big and small screens in the United States, and particularly in Hollywood—is beginning to give way to a more ethical attitude. The attempted censorship of the film, however, was a wake-up call. We must continue to fight the racist anti-Palestinian, and more generally anti-Arab, propaganda that remains all too prevalent in Western entertainment media.

Above all concerned by the danger that this campaign of dehumanization represents for our very existence, as Palestinians, we are well aware that it also affects many racialized communities throughout the world, including in the West, putting them too at risk of suffering a similar fate, as long as the credo “might makes right” prevails.

We call on our international colleagues in the film industry, who we know share our vision of a better world to live in, to denounce this genocide and the erasure, racism and censorship that enable it – to do everything humanly possible to halt and end any complicity in this unspeakable horror, and to oppose any collaboration with production companies that are clearly complicit in the dehumanization of the Palestinian people, and/or that whitewash and justify Israel’s crimes against us.

This has to stop. Now.

Signed.es:

1. Michel Khleifi
2. Mai Masri
3. Hany Abou Assad
4. Najwa Najjar
5. Elijah Suleiman
6. Rachid Masharawi
7. Farah Nabulsi
8. Mohammed Bakri
9. Maha Haj
10. Mahdi Fleifel
11. Raed Andoni
12. Kamal Aljafari
13. Saleh Bakri
14. Mohanad Yaqubi
15. Tarzan Nasser
16. Nasser Arab
17. Oussama Bawardi
18. Mayasi’s friend
19. Khadija Habashneh
20. Leila Sansour
21. Khaled Jarrar
22. Rula Nasser
23. Mai Odeh
24. Adam Bakri
25. Iyad Alasttal
26. Amer Shomali
27. Carol Mansour
28. In Khalid
29. Mohamed Jabaly
30. Salim abu Jabal
31. Souha Arraf
32. Firas Khoury
33. Randa Nassar
34. Yasmine Al Massri
35. Wisam Al Jafari
36. Ismail El Habbach
37. muayed alayan
38. Sawsan Asfari
39. Kamel El-Basha
40. Rozeen Bisharat
41. Nadia Eliewat
42. Quartier Kayyal
43. Maryse Gargour
44. Amer Hlehel
45. Ziad Bakri
46. Aws Al-Banna*
47. Ahmed Al-Danf*
48. Basile Al-Maqousi*
49. Mustafa Al-Nabih*
50. Mohammed Al-Shareef*
51. Alaa Ayob*
52. Bachar Al-Balbeisi*
53. No Damo*
54. Hana Awad*
55. Ahmad Hassouna*
56. Mustafa Kallab*
57. Kareem Satoum*
58. Mahdi Karirah*
59. Rabab Khamees*
60. Khamees Masharawi*
61. Wissam Moussa*
62. Tamer Najm*
63. Nidaa Abou Hasna*
64. Nidal Damo*
65. Reema Mahmoud*
66. Etemad Weshah*
67. Islam Al Zrieai*

Source : Variety

BM Translation for Palestine Media Agency