In an initiative organized by Rally Against Apartheid and the Institute of Media Research and Training at Lebanese American University (LAU), a set of workshops and sessions under the name of ‘Resisting Occupation in Cyberspace’ preceded a screening of three participants’ films in an online event titled ‘Video Advocacy for Palestine’.
Organized by LAU Instructor Maya Al Majzoub, and delivered by filmmaker Raed Zeno, the workshops spanning over two months were given free of charge via online platforms to target those with no previous digital content creation experience and possessing an interest to advocate for the Palestinian cause.
Al Majzoub stressed the importance of a workshop as such by affirming that “the more we learn skills of this sort, the more we reinforce the Palestinian narrative in the face of the dominating occupational Israeli narrative.” Al Majzoub then explains that through acquiring command over digital skills, Zionist media is able to hijack international opinion’s stance on Palestine. On a more hopeful and positive note, she details that Palestinians are beginning to gain command over alternative media with topics of discussion such as ‘settler colonialism’, ‘apartheid’, ‘ethnic cleansing’, and contrasting topics surrounding Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.
The screening followed the films of Hady Majdalani, Racha Salemeh, PhD., and Sole Makdissi, which sought to tackle a specific angle of the Palestinian situation.
Majdalani prefaced his film by discussing the two motives behind him joining this initiative: his love for directing and short films and mainly, and his support for Palestinian advocacy and pursuit for the creation of Zionist-countering content. In his short film “Keffiyeh”, Majdalani portrays the keffiyeh’s significance through interviews with several individuals who shared what it means to them.
On the other hand, Salemeh’s film was a biographical summary of Shafiq El Ghabra, a freedom fighter for Palestine who became a professor of political science. Through Ghabra’s books and other’s encounters with him, Salemeh paints the professor’s heartache over the Palestinian situation and his motivation towards liberation.
Makdissi’s film centered around Syrian Palestinians as she notes that discussing the state of both is not mutually exclusive.
“The separation of the situation in Syria from that in Palestine and Lebanon is not possible,” Makdissi said during the event.
Notably, her short film included an interview with Palestinian activist and writer Saeed El Barghouthi who recounted his childhood fleeing his country. Makdissi poses the question of if settling back in Palestinian land can be considered a right or dream to which El Bargouthi responds: “it is a right because it is the truth.”
Watch the screening of the 3 short films: https://www.facebook.com/RallyAgainstApartheid/videos/2894825