The New Politics of Peace - Interview with Fakhri Hamad
Posted 11:47 PM by Internal Voices in Labels: 9th Edition
Ioana Leu, Intern at UNRIC Brussels, UK & Ireland Desk
Fakhri Hamad is the Project Manager of the Cinema Jenin Project from the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin. He was also one of the speakers at UNRIC’s monthly event CINE‑ONU, 16 September 2009 edition. The film screened on this occasion was “The Heart of Jenin”, a moving documentary about the generosity of a Palestinian who donated his killed son’s organs to save the lives of five Israeli children.
Could you please mention a few facts about your personal background?
I was born in a refugee camp and then my family moved to Kalkylia, which is now surrounded by the wall. I was arrested twice because I was active against the occupation. I actually started these activities before I could understand what I was doing…I was so young and I just wanted to do like the others. It was only later that I thought more about it and realised that we are losing more than we are earning by using this kind of resistance. So I started thinking about other alternatives…
Was there a certain event or person that made you change your point of view?
The most important event that made me think about this is the celebration of Israel’s 59th anniversary. I put myself in the shoes of an Israeli and thought: if a Palestinian comes to me and tells me to go home, I would say to him: “This is my home”. I realised that the Israelis, now, belong to this place and it is impossible to convince a 30-year-old person to go back to Poland or to America or elsewhere.
Then this film [“The Heart of Jenin”, n.ed.] also helped me a lot, because it was actually not the decision of Ismael Khatib [the father of the killed Palestinian boy], it was Jenin’s decision…and not only Jenin, because the people participating at his decision [to donate the organs] were actually influenced by the way of thinking of the whole West Bank. The highest religious authority of the town supported this decision and I understand that it was not only me and Ismael and X and Y in this process; a lot of people are thinking the same: that the conflicted has lasted enough, that it is time to change our way of fighting, our way of resisting.
Which actor do you think would be more efficient in solving this conflict (the UN, the people themselves, another international body)?
As we all know, there was a peace agreement between the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organisation, recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by over 100 states] and the Israeli government, but, in fact, this didn’t really influence the people, we didn’t actually live in peace. So I believe that peace can only come from the bottom, from the citizens of Israel and Palestine, trying to influence the political decision together. This is what we are trying to do through Cinema Jenin project…we are trying to increase the number of Israeli who believe in our rights to live in peace. We already have the support of Israeli companies, but we still need to obtain an official recognition from the government.
Are you afraid that your project might be boycotted?
Anything is possible, but we are trying our best to explain that, in the end, this project will be useful for everyone. In Jenin, people invested a lot in violence: the town provided about 30% of the side attacks in Israel. What did Jenin gain after that? A lot of poor people were encouraged to make these side attacks, but what was the result? Jenin is poor, out of money, we have a lot of problems… Now we are trying to develop the town, to invest in peace and that is why we are asking everyone to come to Jenin, to visit us. To be honest, when more visitors are coming, it means more money is coming to Jenin. So if they invest in peace, others will come and the people’s situation will improve. My dream is to have Jenin as the example of a peaceful town, where Israeli, Palestinians and internationals can talk and live together. And then this model could be applied to other towns, too.■
More about
→ The CINE-ONU project at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNRIC
→ Cinema Jenin at www.cinemajenin.org
Fakhri Hamad is the Project Manager of the Cinema Jenin Project from the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin. He was also one of the speakers at UNRIC’s monthly event CINE‑ONU, 16 September 2009 edition. The film screened on this occasion was “The Heart of Jenin”, a moving documentary about the generosity of a Palestinian who donated his killed son’s organs to save the lives of five Israeli children.
Could you please mention a few facts about your personal background?
I was born in a refugee camp and then my family moved to Kalkylia, which is now surrounded by the wall. I was arrested twice because I was active against the occupation. I actually started these activities before I could understand what I was doing…I was so young and I just wanted to do like the others. It was only later that I thought more about it and realised that we are losing more than we are earning by using this kind of resistance. So I started thinking about other alternatives…
Was there a certain event or person that made you change your point of view?
The most important event that made me think about this is the celebration of Israel’s 59th anniversary. I put myself in the shoes of an Israeli and thought: if a Palestinian comes to me and tells me to go home, I would say to him: “This is my home”. I realised that the Israelis, now, belong to this place and it is impossible to convince a 30-year-old person to go back to Poland or to America or elsewhere.
Then this film [“The Heart of Jenin”, n.ed.] also helped me a lot, because it was actually not the decision of Ismael Khatib [the father of the killed Palestinian boy], it was Jenin’s decision…and not only Jenin, because the people participating at his decision [to donate the organs] were actually influenced by the way of thinking of the whole West Bank. The highest religious authority of the town supported this decision and I understand that it was not only me and Ismael and X and Y in this process; a lot of people are thinking the same: that the conflicted has lasted enough, that it is time to change our way of fighting, our way of resisting.
Which actor do you think would be more efficient in solving this conflict (the UN, the people themselves, another international body)?
As we all know, there was a peace agreement between the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organisation, recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by over 100 states] and the Israeli government, but, in fact, this didn’t really influence the people, we didn’t actually live in peace. So I believe that peace can only come from the bottom, from the citizens of Israel and Palestine, trying to influence the political decision together. This is what we are trying to do through Cinema Jenin project…we are trying to increase the number of Israeli who believe in our rights to live in peace. We already have the support of Israeli companies, but we still need to obtain an official recognition from the government.
Are you afraid that your project might be boycotted?
Anything is possible, but we are trying our best to explain that, in the end, this project will be useful for everyone. In Jenin, people invested a lot in violence: the town provided about 30% of the side attacks in Israel. What did Jenin gain after that? A lot of poor people were encouraged to make these side attacks, but what was the result? Jenin is poor, out of money, we have a lot of problems… Now we are trying to develop the town, to invest in peace and that is why we are asking everyone to come to Jenin, to visit us. To be honest, when more visitors are coming, it means more money is coming to Jenin. So if they invest in peace, others will come and the people’s situation will improve. My dream is to have Jenin as the example of a peaceful town, where Israeli, Palestinians and internationals can talk and live together. And then this model could be applied to other towns, too.■
More about
→ The CINE-ONU project at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNRIC
→ Cinema Jenin at www.cinemajenin.org
0 comment(s) to... “The New Politics of Peace - Interview with Fakhri Hamad”
0 comments:
Post a Comment