I am an Arab, Palestinian and citizen of Israel - I have the right to define my own identity - OpinionIsrael News

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  • I am an Arab, Palestinian and citizen of Israel - I have the right to define my own identity
    By #Suha_Arraf
    Published 20:10 24.08.14
    http://www.haaretz.com/mobile/.premium-1.612195

    In his Hebrew essay entitled “And taking money from Israel is all right?” (Haaretz, August 11, 2014), Goel Pinto contends that if I accepted money from a country, I am obligated to show gratitude by defining my film as Israeli and representing Israel with pride. But Pinto forgets that the Israeli government is not doing us, the Palestinian citizens, any favors by giving us scholarships or budgets. About a million and a half Palestinians live in the State of Israel and pay taxes as the law requires. So we have a right to benefit from 20 percent of the public budget, in accordance with our proportion in the population.

    If anyone should be complaining here, we are the ones who should be doing so, since Arab-Palestinian cultural institutions receive less than two percent of the cultural budget, and we receive less than one percent of the cinema budget. Jewish filmmakers, not we, are the ones who get the most benefit from our tax money.

    The State of Israel never accepted us as citizens with equal rights. From the day the state was established, we were marked as the enemy and treated with racial discrimination in all areas of life. Why, then, am I expected to represent Israel with pride? Do I, as a filmmaker, automatically become an employee of the Foreign Ministry’s public diplomacy department? When the foreign minister issues a call, without shame, to boycott the owners of Palestinian businesses, to say nothing of his transfer plan, am I expected to work for him?

    The Palestinian minority in Israel has a right to cultural autonomy. We have a basic right not only to make films that reflect our cultural identity, but also to define them as such. If the State of Israel sees itself as a democratic and pluralistic state, it must allow us this liberty and stop the campaigns of incitement against Palestinian artists who succeed in breaking out beyond its borders and dare to lift their heads.

    Suha Arraf was born in the Palestinian village of Miliya, near Lebanon. She is the director, scriptwriter and producer of Villa Touma, her debut feature film, which tells the story of three Christian sisters in Ramallah during the early days of the Israeli occupation, and has been shortlisted for the 2014 Venice International Film Festival’s 29th Critics’ Week. Her latest documentary: Women of Hamas, received 13 awards at international film festivals. Suha’s first two screenplays, The Syrian Bride and The Lemon Tree, both directed by Eran Riklis, received international acclaim, with the latter winning Best Screenplay at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and a Best Screenplay nomination at the European Film Academy Awards.

    Toile de fond:
    Un film financé par Israël présenté comme “Palestinien”
    http://fr.timesofisrael.com/un-film-finance-par-israel-presente-comme-palestinien

    #identité #Palestine