In Its Own Right – To Multiply Voices of Palestinian Artists

By: börek - February 7th, 2024  Filed under: Theater

Friday 16 February 2024, In Its Own Right – To Multiply Voices of Palestinian Artists. An AstaroTheatro Production. Door opens at 20:00

To multiply the voices of Palestinian artists that believe in the importance of their practice as cultural resistance, we are echoing the stories of lives under settler colonialism. Mixed with our own reflections about political theatre as a way to reignite Palestinian cultural flame. Believing this is an act of political love and solidarity with those who need that we exercise our rights and freedom of speech to make echo of their legitimate claim to exist.

In Its Own Right is our theatrical answer to the call to join a global artistic collaboration with The Revolution’s Promise, a collaboration between Artists on the Frontline and The Freedom Theatre in Jenin.

An AstaroTheatro Production
https://astarotheatro.com/
https://www.therevolutionspromise.com/

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Nakba film

By: börek - December 4th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 10 December 2023, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Nakba film * free screening * doors open at 8pm * intro & film start at 8.30

At the beginning of this flick, the director comes across a man who tells the story of a secret that everyone else denies and says is a fabrication. But as audio tapes and photographs are taken out of cardboard boxes, the horrible truth of what happened in the village is reconstructed. Additional archival film material, including unused news material that was shot by the BBC, is also brought in to help uncover the tragedy.

Now a cosy gentrified place, the very name of the town becomes tainted, the place feels like a horror story. This is a dynamite documentary that almost feels like a detective story at times, and one that is absolutely crucial to understand current events today. Besides laying out historical events, we are set on a course to wonder at the power of collective amnesia, or rather the forced-amnesia of an entire population. So in that light, although the film is about Israel in 1948, it could also be applicable to many places around the world. For example, it’s similar to how people in America treat their history of the Native American Indians, or the dropping of atomic bombs on civilian targets in Japan. And since we are living in Holland, I would extend that also to how Jews were treated here during World War II when 82% of the Jewish population were sent to death camps, and yet Holland only likes to talk about its almost nonexistent “resistance movement”.

Events are not isolated. History is always contextual or not at all. One has to always look at the bigger picture and not simply emotionally respond to a single incident, otherwise it makes no sense. So in order to understand something that burst out two months ago in Israel and Palestine, you have to also take into account an incident that happened in 1948. Today, as Gaza shifts from an “open air concentration camp” to a death camp, it’s important to understand what kick-started the problem. In 1948 Israel waged its ‘war of independence’, which meant hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed to make room for the new state of Israel. This film examines one small village – – and uses it as a microcosm for a larger tragedy that happened all across Palestine known as “Al Nakba” – the disaster. The film also explores why recognition of the “Nakba” is taboo in Israeli society. And before we jump to any conclusions, let’s keep in mind that the director of this film is Israeli.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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ORCA (Organized students for Radical Climate Action) with SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) Voku

By: börek - December 4th, 2023  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Thursday 7 december 2023, ORCA (Organized students for Radical Climate Action) with SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) Voku. Food served from 7pm, no reservation.

This evening, ORCA (Organised students for Radical Climate Action) and SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) come together in a shared effort to cook a cheap, vegan dinner for you.
ORCA is a student group, primarily made up by UvA (Universiteit van Amsterdam) students that advocates for a vision of true climate justice that addresses the root causes of the crises. We share an intersectional, anti-capitalist, antifascist worldview and oppose any kinds of oppression and discrimination. This includes an abolitionist approach to borders, police and (neo)colonialism. We believe in bottom-up revolutionary organising and a new world based on mutual radical care, solidarity, and a regenerative culture. Our goals include the decarbonisation, democratisation, and decolonisation of the Dutch higher education system, and we reject the neoliberalisation of our society, including our educational spaces. Want to find out more? Come to the Voku & have a chat.
Students for Justice in Palestine Amsterdam is a democratic collective of Amsterdam students standing in solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian struggle for liberation. We are a fully independent and autonomous group. Our activism is firmly rooted in anti-colonial, anti-racist, anti-capitalist and feminist principles.

ORCA (Organised students for Radical Climate Action) https://squ.at/r/9qpd
SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) https://squ.at/r/6015 […Lees verder]

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Fedayin: The Struggle of Georges Abdallah (Vacarmes, 2020)

By: börek - December 2nd, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 3rd December 2023, Movie night – Fedayin: The Struggle of Georges Abdallah (Vacarmes, 2020). 81 min. Documentary with English subtitles. Doors open at 20:00, intro & film start at 20:30.

Fedayin: The Struggle of Georges Abdallah traces the course of an indefatigable Arab Communist and fighter for Palestine. From the Palestinian refugee camps that shaped his conscience to international mobilizations for his release, we will explore the situation of one of the longest-held political prisoners in Europe.

Synopsis: For over 35 years, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah has been imprisoned. A Lebanese communist engaged in resistance alongside Palestinian fighters, he has been imprisoned by the French judicial system and successive governments since 1984. Beyond the judicial harassment to which he has been subjected, this documentary film will trace the political course of Georges Abdallah and seeks to show how his ideas and struggle are still vital and necessary.

This film about the critically important case of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah includes interviews with Samidoun international coordinator Charlotte Kates, Samidoun Europe coordinator Mohammed Khatib, Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat coordinator Khaled Barakat and many others, including Robert and Maurice Abdallah (Georges’ brothers), Jean-Louis Chalanset (Georges’ lawyer), Suzanne le Manceau (co-founder of the Collectif pour la Libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (CLGIA)), Bertrand Sassoye (former political prisoner) and Jean-Marc Rouillan (former political prisoner).

The film takes us to Lebanon, to the Palestinian refugee camps, where he forged himself politically. We follow his engagement in the Palestinian resistance and against the Israeli occupation with the FARL (Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Fractions), a commitment that will take him to France in the 1980s, where he will be sentenced for complicity in murder. Through a series of interviews (in France, Lebanon, Belgium and Germany), we go to meet his family, his lawyer, his supporters, his friends and people who have rubbed shoulders with him. With them, we trace a life of resistance to imperialism and Zionist occupation.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Radical Sunday School: Germany, Europe and Anti-Antisemitism, Or: why you are not supposed to criticise Israel

By: börek - November 28th, 2023  Filed under: Debat, Workshop

Sunday 3 December 2023, Radical Sunday School: Germany, Europe and Anti-Antisemitism, Or: why you are not supposed to criticise Israel, from 18:00 till 20:00.

Why is it so difficult to criticise Israel in Europe even as the country’s government is conducting genocide? In this session, we are going to look at how Germany in particular, but colonial Europe more generally, require Israel to justify their ideological hegemony. How is the Holocaust and the subsequent founding of Israel, declaration of human rights, etc. used to silence Europe’s (post and neo) colonial responsibility? How can Europe – as it so often does – present itself as the bearer of human rights and dignity as it funds yet another genocide?

Sharing experiences is highly welcome; Islamophobia, Antisemitism, and any other racisms are not.
If you’d like to get involved at RSS, collaborate with us as a collective, or propose a topic for a meeting, mail us at radicalsundayschool [at] proton [dot] me […Lees verder]

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Benefit VoKu for The Freedom Theater in Jenin

By: börek - November 10th, 2023  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Thursday 23 November 2023, Benefit VoKu for The Freedom Theater in Jenin. Food served from 7pm, no reservation.

The Freedom Theatre is located in Jenin Palestinian refugees camp. For years the theatre has been working according to the principle of ‘resistance through art’. Its presence and activities are fundamental for the children, women and people of the camp. Their aim to change the narrative and to give human and artistic dignity to the people of Jenin is inspiring activists and artists not only in the occupied Palestinian territories but also around the world. […Lees verder]

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Palestinian movie night: Homage by Assassination (Elia Suleiman, 1992), Aisheen, Still Alive in Gaza (Nicolas Wadimoff, 2010)

By: börek - November 1st, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 5 november 3023, Palestinian movie night: Homage by Assassination (Elia Suleiman, 1992), Aisheen, Still Alive in Gaza (Nicolas Wadimoff, 2010). Free admission. Doors opens at 20:00, films start at 20:30

Homage by Assassination – Short film by Elia Suleiman – 1992 – 23 minutes – Arabic with English subtitles
A Palestinian filmmaker is writing a script in his New York apartment during the first Gulf war. As much as he tries to shut himself off from the exterior world, images of past wars in the Middle East come back to haunt him.

Aisheen, Still alive in Gaza – Documentary by Nicolas Wadimoff – 86 minutes – 2010 – Arabic with English subtitles
Synopsis: « Where is the ghost town? », asks the little boy to the theme park attendant. « It’s there, right there. But it has been bombed… Do you want to see it? » It is with these words that the film, « Aisheen», begins – an impressionist journey through a devastated Gaza after the war. And the ghost town? Gaza is the ghost town.
Clowns that try to make children forget the bombing, armed with rubber balloons; a beached whale, “as big as a building” that feeds the fantasy; a scrawny, stuffed lion, bizarrely hanging in a cage at a zoo as if it were a trophy. A woman, at the side of the road, who has already been waiting for three weeks for a petrol delivery…
“Aisheen” (Still alive in Gaza) tells the story about the wait after the disaster. The wait for a better future inside the biggest prison in the world.
Through encounters in these otherwise ordinary places (but places that, here, take on another meaning), the film portrays a different Gaza. Poetic, surreal at times. “Aisheen” is a tribute to life…
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/240881521

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Radical Sunday School for Palestine

By: börek - November 1st, 2023  Filed under: Infoavond, Muziek, Volkseten/Voku, Workshop

Sunday 5 november 2023, Radical Sunday School for Palestine, from 15:00 till 19:00.

It’s time for some good care. Radical Sunday School is aided by some lovely Palestinian folks and other comrades to serve some delicious food (feel free to donate a little), have a some Palestinian live music on the Oud at 5:00pm, and a short talk on education in times of crisis, but we also simply want to offer a space to share how we feel. We hope to create a warm and caring space for anyone who would like to join us for the day and enjoy delicious mujaddara. […Lees verder]

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