Nakba 75: Remembering the Voices: Voices from the Holy Land Film Salon

Two documentary films, Voices across the Divide and Born in Deir Yassin, pull back the carefully constructed curtain of “a land without people for a people without a land”.  Since 1948, a monumental effort has been made to promote a romantic mythology of Israel’s creation and to hide the brutal violence. But firsthand accounts by both the oppressor and the oppressed, the expeller and the exiled, reveal the ongoing wounds. Nothing is resolved by dialogue alone, yet nothing will be resolved without it. Any hope of coexistence begins when the historical truth is rediscovered and acknowledged. It begins here.

All were invited to watch the film for free at your convenience, then join the Q&A discussion:

Watch the Trailers: 1) vimeo.com/818747654 2) vimeo.com/818744242

Alice Rothchild is the author of Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience and Condition Critical: Life and Death in Israel/Palestine.  She contributed to Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism: Stories of Personal Transformation; directed a documentary film, Voices across the Divide; and is active in Jewish Voice for Peace. Alice practiced obstetrics-gynecology and served as Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Harvard Medical School, for almost 40 years. She is completing a graphic novel, a memoir in verse, and researching a book on the history of the home-birth movement in Seattle.

Emad Moussa is a Palestinian-British writer and researcher specializing in the political psychology of intergroup dynamics and intractable conflict.  He focuses on the Middle East/North Africa (MENA), with a special interest in Israel/Palestine and our understanding of the role of victimhood narratives and memory in construction in sustaining the Israeli-Palestinian situation.  Emad also has a background in the theory and practice of human rights, international human rights law, and journalism.  He is a frequent contributor to various academic and media outlets, and is an editorial consultant for U.S.-based think tanks.

Huda Giddens is a Palestinian Christian whose family home was in Talbiyyeh, West Jerusalem, where her father operated the first tourist agency in Palestine.  In 1946, Zionist activity (including the bombing of the King David hotel) forced her extended family to flee.  Their houses, land, and properties were appropriated by the new Israeli government.  Huda’s journey of study and teaching took her to Seattle, where she founded the Giddens School of pre-5-K “whole child” education.  While training teachers in Gaza in the 1980s, she worked with OXFAM-UK to start an early childhood project for the Bedouin in the Negev.  Huda is the chair of Kairos Puget Sound Coalition.

Ahlam Muhtaseb (moderator) a is a professor of media studies at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), where she was the recipient of the 2020 Outstanding Scholarship, Research and Creative Activities Award.  Her documentary 1948: Creation & Catastrophe, coproduced and codirected with Andy Trimlett, was screened at more than 20 film festivals. She is working on a study of Palestinian digital resistance and decolonizing digital spaces, and on a documentary about the three young Muslims murdered in Chapel Hill in 2015. She has an M.A. in journalism and a Ph.D. in digital communication from the University of Memphis, Tennessee.

SUPPORTER Organizations: Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) + Episcopal Peace Fellowship–Palestine Israel Network + Churches for Middle East Peace + Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace + Quaker Palestine–Israel Network + Virginia Coalition for Human Rights + Mennonite Palestine Israel Network + Friends of Sabeel North America + Center for Jewish Nonviolence + United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network + Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA + Northern New Jersey Jewish Voice for Peace + Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service + Kairos Puget Sound Coalition + Pax Christi USA +