Loading ...The Wanted 18: Israel Blocks Palestinian Filmmaker from Making NYC Film Premiere About Intifada Cows
The annual Human Rights Watch International Film Festival is underway here in New York City, but one of its featured directors won’t be able to attend his film’s U.S. premiere this weekend. That’s because Israel recently deemed Palestinian filmmaker Amer Shomali a “security threat” and prevented him from traveling to Jerusalem to obtain a U.S. visa. Then he went to Amman, Jordan, where the U.S. approved a visa but said their visa machine was broken. Shomali had previously attended half a dozen European festivals without incident, and his film has drawn international acclaim. Interestingly, the film, “The Wanted 18,” shows how Israel has historically tried to undermine any form of Palestinian nonviolent resistance by branding such resistance as dangerous and threatening, and recreates an astonishing true story from the First Palestinian Intifada when the Israeli army pursued 18 cows, whose independent milk production on a Palestinian collective farm was declared “a threat to the national security of the state of Israel.” We speak to Amer Shomali in Ramallah.
TRANSCRIPT
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AMY GOODMAN: The annual Human Rights Watch International Film Festival is underway here in New York City, but one of its featured directors will not be in attendance at his film’s U.S. premiere on Saturday night. That’s because Israel recently deemed Palestinian filmmaker Amer Shomali a “security threat,” preventing him from traveling to Jerusalem to obtain a U.S. visa. Then he went to Amman, Jordan, where the U.S. did approve his visa but said their visa machine was broken, so couldn’t issue it. Amer Shomali had previously attended half a dozen European film festivals without incident.
His film has drawn international acclaim. Interestingly, the film shows how Israel has historically tried to undermine any form of Palestinian nonviolent resistance by branding such resistance as dangerous and threatening. The film is called The Wanted 18. It recreates an astonishing true story from the First Palestinian Intifada when the Israeli army pursued 18 cows—that’s right, cows—whose independent milk production on a Palestinian collective farm was declared “a threat to the national security of the state of Israel.” This is the film’s trailer.
Source: www.democracynow.org