Last year millions of parents and children around the world lined up at movie theaters to see Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland. For most, it was a fun escape from reality. In the city of Jenin, the play, Alice in Wonderland, featuring kids at Juliano Mer-Khamis' Freedom Theater, symbolized something different. In this town marred by conflict and blinded by zealotry, Alice in Wonderland is actually "dangerous." That's how Juliano described it weeks before he was senselessly and brutally murdered. For those grieving in this part of the world, his murder is, in my mind, on par with the shock and grief we felt in Central Park after the loss of John Lennon. To kill a person like Juliano is like killing peace itself. This murder is yet another cold reminder of how this prolonged conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has deformed people's sense of up and down, good and bad, right and wrong. They literally can't recognize their friends from their enemies.
Born to a Jewish mother and a Palestinian Communist father, Juliano was, as his daughter Milay eloquently said at his funeral, "100 percent Arab and 100 percent Jewish." There were no boundaries, no labels or compartmentalization. Although the visuals of Juliano's life in Jenin often included demeaning checkpoints and ugly interrogations, Juliano saw beyond them. He accepted the yolk of his life. And he wore it, in order to work within it. He could have easily run away -- his talent and his fame afforded him that opportunity. He chose to stay and raise his voice for peace. If that is not an act of bravery, I don't know what is.
Juliano's evolved sense of purpose, sorely lacking in the region on both sides of the conflict, was a result of an extraordinary, if not unorthodox, upbringing. His mother, Arna Mer, was a fighter -- she was a member of the Palmach militia, later in life she battled cancer, and most importantly, she fought tirelessly on behalf of the children of Jenin. Arna began a theater school for Palestinian children during the first intifada. Juliano captured his mother's work in his deeply moving 2004 documentary Arna's Children. Juliano began to film his mother and the children from her theater school as they began their love of the art form. Dressed in colorful costumes with paper crowns, these fleeting moments amidst violence and terror were the few in which one could see these children reveling in their youth. Early on in the film, Arna is seen advising another teacher: "If the children make a mistake, please don't be angry. And please don't correct them."
Over the span of a decade, Juliano filmed 10 of the children from Arna's theater school, and when he returned in the last year, he found that six out of the 10 children were killed as suicide bombers or in altercations with guns in Tel Aviv, two were in prison, and only two remained. As we know, and woefully ignore, the cycle of violence consumes all who continue it -- even those who are taught to know better.
A mutual friend of ours tells a story of how Juliano spoke of his dreams as a young man: "Just because my father was a Palestinian Marxist doesn't mean I can't be the best fighter pilot in the Israeli Army." But clearly, something in him changed. Like his mother before him, Juliano started the Freedom Theater to educate children in the only professional venue for the arts in the Northern West Bank. Juliano envisioned the Freedom Theater as a "third intifada" -- a cultural uprising, with poetry, music, theater, cameras and magazines used to fight back against the violence. The Freedom Theater serves as a safe haven for many children, where they could turn to develop their creativity and emotions in the midst of military occupation. It is a place where young girls who are being abused can come and talk in confidence, where children can freely express their fears, and where a young boy who stutters can overcome his speech impediment through acting.
Juliano was shot five times outside this theater -- in front of his wife and youngest child.
If you knew Juliano, as I did because of his work on Miral, you couldn't possibly imagine such a tragedy. He was a very big man with a very big smile. The man was strong and on a mission. He came over to my house in Jaffa to meet me. He didn't want to go to the production office. He wanted to come to my home, meet Rula Jebreal, the author of the script, and learn about me personally before committing to the film. He was very late -- checkpoints gave him a fit. He brought his kids who made themselves at home. They were polite, comfortable and proud. Then Juliano sat on my couch and studied my face -- to see what my intentions were with Miral. Trust is immensely important, and not easily granted from a man living amidst a violent military occupation. In hindsight, I am lucky I got it.
During production, when Juliano was given his expensive robes for the role of a Kuwaiti sheikh, he scolded the costume designer: "Why did you spend all of this money on these robes? We could have used this money for something more important." When he finally put on those robes, he unbuttoned the top button -- something a sheikh would never do. For Juliano, it was another gesture of freedom, from a man who gave us many.
All of us involved with Miral are mourning the loss of our colleague and collaborator, Juliano Mer-Khamis. Our film, Miral, is a cry for peace and is intended to open a dialogue to end the cycle of violence. The Freedom Theater in Jenin is a beacon of light in a very dark place. If you would like to support it, and continue Juliano Mer-Khamis' peaceful mission, please visit the website. Thank you.
This article first appeared on Foreign Policy's Middle East Channel.
All white...except Japan.
By all accounts, he seems to have been an exceptional person, someone who will be hard, if not impossible to replace. He got things moving, created new opportunities, new dreams, wasn't afraid to experiment in surroundings where innovation and novelty are much more the exception rather than the rule.
It must be admitted that, even in this, our modern 21st century, we still have too many places like that.
I, myself, have made some foray into promoting innovation. http://yorketowers.blogspot.com
Fortunately for me, no organisation or individual has yet placed a contract on my head. It seems my attempts to change the status quo have met with too limited a response. Modifying the norms and customs of the times in which we live (and die) is, perhaps, best left to the likes of Mr. Mer-Khamis and others with his outlook on society.
Why then am I a little envious of Juliano and his fate? Perhaps because his life (and maybe his death) will have changed things in some mysterious fashion, in ways that we may only come to know as the future unfolds.
Let us all hope so.
The world can ill afford to lose men such as this.
Keepers of the Flame mourn his loss, and the dimming of the Light.
I wish to share with you some historic experience that may make you rethink your unshakable confidence at whom to direct the blame and who is the permanent victim who can’t be held responsible for any evil and horrific act he does.
In Soviet times devoted western communist migrated to USSR to help building the “communism” and just society.
Most of them have been executed by soviet NKVD/ KGB who were not interested in Western witnesses to the agony of Russians, Ukrainians etc… under the Bolsheviks oppression.
It is well documented historic fact that many of Western Communists good comrades / of those who died in Soviet Gulags, and knowing how they died and of the million massacred – remained devoted Communists.
These Radicals refused to condemn the Soviet regime and continued their chants in the usual choirs on the evils of Capitalism, Colonialism, and… you guested right - Zionism who is the reason for all the problems of the World.
The hardships in USSR, according to the said radicals, were created by the necessity to fight Capitalism, Zionism, etc… and release the oppressed working class in the west who had nothing to lose apart it chains!
Seems like the only thing more dangerous than being an enemy of Palestinians is being their friend.
The back wind provided by Western Radicals to the Radical Islamist though false image as “Freedom Fighters” and “Protectors of Palestinian Rights” are one of the factors that make difficult for moderate Arabs to establish normal civil society in West Bank, Gaza and negotiate reasonable agreement without being marked as "traitor" and subsequently terrorized.
Famous and high profile example of such “progressive intellectual” was the recent resident BBC reporter in Gaza that was warned of the risk of kidnapping (also by Israeli intelligence). This usually anti-Israeli reporter dismissed all the warnings by saying - the worth what can happen to kidnapped by Hamas journalist is gaining weight, due to Arab diet and hospitality.
Poor fellow was finally kidnapped and luckily for him freed alive after 30 days.
After regaining freedom this starved and traumatized man was finally admitting the reality about the “freedom fighters” of Gaza describing his captors as perverts at the best case.
Interestingly he described in the same interview to BBC as one of his happiest moments - when he finally reached the Israeli – Gaza boarder and saw Israeli officer as symbol of his newly regained freedom.
Mer was not peace activist. He took side of the most radical section that believed in “one state solution” in accordance to the distorted claims that all the lands of historic Israel were lands “stolen from Arabs”.
In Israel irrespective his extreme views, he had the right to his opinions and freely performed in Haifa and other Israeli theaters.
Mer was killed in West Bank Jenin by Militant of same kind that are frequently killing political opponents, homosexuals, suspected "traitors", women that “offended family honor”, etc…
Many of the above endangered people finding their hidouts in Israel.
I would expect from human rights and peace supporter like Julian Schnabel using this regrettable murder for preaching for stop of violence and intolerance that prevent political, social and economic development under Hamas and PLO regimes in West Bank and Gaza –
Instead - The Author choose to close his eyes to ugly reality and “arrest the usual suspects": Occupation!
My suggestion is : cooperati¬ng with Palestinia¬n society to stop such heinous murders.
That was my suggested conclusion to the author Julian Schnabel. In my view the most appropriat¬e way to commemorat¬e the senseless death of Mer and so many others - is start education of Arab youthin AP and Hamas controlled areas for tolerance and non -violence.
I oppose to Mer ideas but I would do everything to protect his right to say his ideas, in order to have the open mind of my opponents to listen to my ideas and perhaps to sustain the option of the compromise between us.
If even most devoted Anti – Israeli activists like late Julian Mer and recent tragic victim in Gaza - Victorio Arigoni - cannot stay alive in the environmen¬t prevailing today in West Bank and Gaza – you can’t blindly repeating same mantra: “Occupatio¬n to be Blamed for Everything¬!” .
I am sure that MER and Victorio families would like commemorat¬e their legacy (which I personally oppose as politicall¬y mistaken) by establishi¬ng fund to promote education of the young people in West Bank and Gaza for tolerance and non- violence! For sure such education will save additional senseless murders.
of innocents and destroyed their physical and psychological infrastructure. All of this to get one man. We are living, still, a contrived drama of awesome contortions and proportions.
Salem is a 29 year old secularist who played a major role in the Egyptian revolution.
As much as I disagree with lots of his positions, his voice and voices like his, would make for a very hopeful future.