Recollection (2015), Kamal Aljafari

We, scholars and researchers engaged in the emancipation and self-determination of peoples, members of the editorial board of the quarterly journal of theory and history of cinema and the arts La Furia Umana, strongly condemn and repudiate the massacre of the civilian population and the destruction of infrastructure and cultural heritage in the Gaza Strip by Israel. We call for an immediate ceasefire and peace and we appeal to Israel to respect the United Nations Charter of Human Rights and resolutions regarding the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the Oslo Accords signed in 1993.

While we unequivocally condemn the acts committed by Hamas in Israel, it is essential to recognize that these actions should not be seen in isolation, but should be understood in a socio-historical context and from a broader perspective. Colonial violence began with the Nakba in 1948 and continues to this day in the systematic violation of human rights in Palestine, a policy of colonial expansion and the system of racial, ethnic and religious apartheid in that geographical area, as argued in the Report “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity,” published on 1st February 2022 by Amnesty International (https://www. amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/5141/2022/en/). In this document, Amnesty International analyzes “Israel’s intent to create and maintain a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians” and examines “its key components: territorial fragmentation; segregation and control; dispossession of land and property; and denial of economic and social rights.” If Nelson Mandela stressed that “we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians” and if Israel’s support for South African apartheid is well known, we recall that, just as the South African people fought against this oppressive system, the Palestinian people, like other historically colonized and oppressed peoples, have the right to self-determination.

We do not tolerate abusive assimilations between expressions of solidarity with Palestine and anti-Semitism, an ideological construct disseminated by Israel through its propaganda apparatus, nor fallacious identifications between Hamas and the Palestinian people as a whole. We also remember that Israel is currently governed by an extreme right-wing government and we recall the internal resistance to the oppressive policies of this executive. We condemn the hypocrisy and double standards of Western countries and their complicity in the genocide currently underway. We also repudiate the ban on demonstrations of solidarity with Palestine and the persecution of individuals who express their support for the Palestinian cause, dangerous threats to freedom of opinion and expression.

Finally, we must remember that this conflict is also taking place in the field of representations. In this sphere too, there is a total asymmetry between the power of Israel, a state with an important propaganda apparatus that operates nationally and internationally, mobilizing strategies such as Pinkwashing, and the vulnerability of Palestine. While greeting the resistant cinema of Palestinian filmmakers such as Elia Suleiman and Kamal Aljafari, but also that of Israeli directors such as Avi Mograbi and Eyal Sivan, we emphasize, as researchers who believe in the potency of emancipation and transformation of the moving image, that there is a complete discrepancy in the modes of cinematographic and audiovisual production and distribution in the two territories, and that the struggle is therefore also taking place in the field of representations. We call for a critical, analytical and attentive look at the images and discursive constructions disseminated by the hegemonic media.

Solidarity with Palestine! Immediate ceasefire! Peace! Self-determination for the Palestinian people!

La Furia Umana’s editorial board