Episode 016: The Past and the Present with Farah Nabulsi

This week we sit down with Farah Nabulsi, Palestinian-British Oscar-nominated, and BAFTA award-winning filmmaker and human rights advocate. We do a deep dive into The Present exploring its themes, the thought process behind certain characters and exchanges, and the notion that we learn just as much about Palestinian cultural tendencies of hospitality and compassion as we do about the realities of life under Israeli military occupation. Farah also clues us into the only part of the Present which is fictional and reveals why she chose to focus this film around the checkpoint - just one of the settler-colonial state’s violent many structures and apparatuses. We discuss the importance of language in a liberation struggle and the interplay between the dehumanization of the Palestinians and the oppressor’s capacity to oppress (shoutout Stanley Milgrim). Farah and Lara talk Fanon and Michael recall Chomsky’s warnings about the emergence of Judeo-Nazi tendencies in Apartheid Israel. Farah suggests Lara and Michael go into radio.

To consult the sources used in the preparation of this episode, please see:

Videos

1. Farah Nabulsi (Website)

2. The Present (Farah Nabulsi’s film on Netflix)

Books:

1. Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (Jack Shaheen)

Articles

1. Israel’s occupation: 50 years of dispossession in the West Bank (Amnesty International)

2. Restrictions on Movement (B’Tselem)

3. West Bank infrastructure projects help “expand” illegal settlements (TRT World)

4. Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution (Human Rights Watch Report)

5. IMEU reports that seven Palestinian youth were killed in last two weeks in the West Bank

6. Denied permits, Palestinians raze own homes in Jerusalem (France 24)

7. Palestinian pregnant women giving birth at Israeli checkpoints (United Nations Human Rights Council) 

8. Judeo-Nazi tendencies in Israel a product of occupation (Noam Chomsky to i24NEWS). 

9. Over 700 road obstacles control Palestinian movement within the West Bank (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)

10. Breaking the Silence: an organization of former Israeli soldiers who speak out against their violent oppression of Palestinians

11. Frantz Fanon’s Contribution to Psychiatry: The Psychology of Racism and Colonialism (Journal of the National Medical Association)

12. ‘Death to Arabs’: Israeli ‘Flag March’ features racist anti-Palestinian chants (Mondoweiss)

13. ‘Why Should We Ask Israel Permission to Film Its Illegal Activity?’ (Haaretz)

14. Israel’s propaganda war waged through TV shows (Al Jazeera)

15. Palestinians lose $270m per year due to military checkpoints (Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem, Middle East Monitor)

16. Israel’s military checkpoints (Al Jazeera Interactive) 

17. Unlike Stolen Land, the Palestinians’ Stolen Time Cannot Be Returned (Haaretz, Opinion)

18. Security or control? The truth behind Israel’s checkpoints (Eyewitness Blog, EAPPI UK & Ireland)

19. Khalil Gibran on half-truths: In battling evil, excess is good; for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of people’s wrath.”

20. Rabbi criticizes South African president for describing Israel as an apartheid state (Times Live)

21. As a Rabbi Raised in South Africa, I Can’t Ignore Israel Is an Apartheid State (Truth Out)

22. Power Up: Biden administration approves $735 million weapons sale to Israel (The Washington Post)