Arna's Children: understanding the Palestinian resistance
Arna’s Children is really a one-of-a-kind documentary. It follows the lives of a number of Palestinian children from their time in elementary school, to their late teen-age years. They are all connected by their participation in a theatre program with an old Jewish lady, Arna. Her son, the filmmaker, video-taped many of these sessions and later went back to visit after the Israeli siege and assault on Jenin. Many of the same children became resistance fighters and later died in fighting against Israeli soldiers or, in one case, during an attack on Israeli civilians inside Israel.
The film makes it difficult to judge the people in the film. If anything, it is a really good insight into the circumstances children face while growing up and what might drive people to see militancy as the only possible way out of the occupation.
You can view the entire film on YouTube. Here are all 9 parts. I highly recommend that everybody watch every minute of the film (I’m especially hoping Ray will)–it’s worth it:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=ofHBwiszMw8[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=XwZft7bg-tU&mode=related&search=[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=NE72lUxvrXU&mode=related&search=[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=K8P3PsezZSo&mode=related&search=[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=AxWJnoMnPVE&mode=related&search=[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=dVDqrhJD4ck&mode=related&search=[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ho7EqLdIJss&mode=related&search=[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=zqNgbbzYrPo&mode=related&search=[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=_Eg-lYLSERA&mode=related&search=[/youtube]
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Arna’s Children is a documentary film by Juliano Mer Khamis, an Israeli actor and director. His mother, Arna Mer, was a Jewish-Israeli and his father, Saliba Khamis, was a 1948 Palestinian from Nazareth. Both were active in the Israeli Communist party.
As an Israeli citizen, Juliano Mer was drafted and served in the Israeli army. He is a well-known actor in Israel, and has starred in many films by prominent directors. He has also played minor roles in several Hollywood films, such as The Little Drummer Girl. Today he lives in Tel Aviv, where he has a daughter by his former partner.
Arna Mer founded the Jenin Children’s Theatre during the 1980′s. Juliano also taught at the theatre. Today he is active in many causes on behalf of social justice for both 1948 and 1967 Palestinians. Recently he hosted an event for a group of Israeli Jews and Jenin residents at the Jenin theatre. The event was covered by Time Out Tel Aviv, a weekly magazine.
Arna’s Children has been broadcast several times on Israeli television, and has been covered by the Israeli mainstream media. I see it as an example of the enormous human complexity behind the tragic Israeli-Palestinian conflict.