Last month, forty Palestinian filmmakers and cultural workers signed a letter addressed to Ms. Catherine Colomb-Nancy at the Europeaid Office in Brussels regarding their concerns about the Euromed Audiovisual II Project. They suggested a meeting to exchange views about the proposal. The letter was sent via fax and email, and a hard copy was sent via regular mail. Alarmingly, no one from Euromed responded to the letter, let alone acknowledged it.
The primary concerns outlined in the letter were twofold:
1) That this entity calling itself the "Ramallah Film Institute" is, in fact, not registered in Palestine: Euromed lists the partners of the project to be the "New Foundation for Cinema and Television (Israel) and the Ramallah Film Institute (Palestinian Authority)". Attached is an official letter from the Palestinian Ministry stating that the Ramallah Film Institute is not registered anywhere within the Palestinian Authority. The Ramallah Film Institute, aside from having no relationship with the local Palestinian cultural community, is, in fact, an Israeli-registered organization.
2) The fact that the Israeli partner is a government organization (established by the Ministry of Education, Culture & Sport with the assistance of The Israel Film Council) - a government that continues its illegal and harsh occupation of Palestine and continues to deny Palestinians their rights. In addition, the New Foundation for Cinema and Television has refused to reject occupation nor work actively for its removal openly. (Our objections are not with individual Israelis nor with organizations that work towards Palestinian freedom but rather with government organizations such as the New Foundation for Cinema & Television who refuse to recognize our rights).
A follow-up letter was sent to the E.U. office three weeks later and was also subsequently ignored. Clearly, the concerns of forty of Palestine's preeminent artists, including those we have defined as Palestinian cinema itself internationally, including Elia Suleiman, Hany Abu Assad, Rashid Masharawi, and Mai Masri, mean nothing to the Euromed Project. The fact that the former board members of the Ramallah Film Festival, like George Khleifi, quit because financial reports were not given to the board when requested appears to be meaningless to Euromed. The interests and concerns of Palestine's numerous community and cultural organizations have no value.
Two months ago, in December, when rumors first emerged that this project was forming, Adam Zuabi himself was requested to provide more information about the project to an e-mail list of filmmakers. He chose not to respond and, to this day, has not addressed us nor provided any information about the project, including its upcoming launch at the Berlinale.
The question is, why was this letter disregarded? Why were the concerns of Palestinian individuals working in the cultural scene, many of whom have previous experience working with the Ramallah Film Festival in the past, thrown to the side?
We are forty Palestinians: we are from here, we live here, we work here, we are part of this community. We refuse to be ignored. We do not want well-funded projects imposed upon us from the outside without regard for our concerns. It is a slap in the face of Palestinian filmmakers, intellectuals and cultural workers who have been working for decades to be seen as independent, respected artists. We have contacted Euromed professionally and openly. We demand acknowledgement.
Adam Zoabi (and his "Ramallah Film Institute") is free to do whatever he wants. That is his right. Euromed is free to support whoever it chooses. We are very aware that joint Israeli-Palestinian projects are "sexy" and "lucrative," especially in Europe.
However, Palestine is not a "jungle", and there are people in this community who are working very hard to better our situation. Financial transparency and accountability are vital to this. We are working against organizations that believe that financial records are private rather than public. We ask organizations who claim to serve the community actually to have a relationship with that community. And organizations who wish to publicly claim they are registered within the Palestinian Authority actually to be registered. Throwing funding and/or projects at less wealthy countries that are struggling with corruption and supporting projects that are not rooted within the community nor taking into consideration the concerns of the local community they purport to be helping, hurt the Palestinian community considerably.
We demand that Euromed immediately correct its statement and all publicity and other materials which falsely claim that this project ("Greenhouse") is a partnership between Israel and the Palestinian Authority before the grand launch at the Berlinale in Germany. This is not a partnership between an "Israeli" organization and a "Palestinian Authority" organization. Euromed's Greenhouse Project is a partnership between two Israeli-registered organizations and we demand that this be amended in their publications and that the name of Palestine is not used to promote a partnership which actually does not exist and which only serves to benefit a few individuals rather than the community it claims to be serving.
We challenge David Fisher and the New Foundation for Cinema and Television to openly reject occupation and the illegal actions of their government and come out in support of the full rights of Palestinians to be free and equal. We call on those who can pressure Israel from within, especially artists and cultural institutions, who have mostly stood silent for years in the face of wanton destruction, oppression and injustice and perhaps even benefited from occupation, to make their voices heard. We ask that Israelis no longer stand silent in the face of terrible injustices taking place. We believe that it is high time that Israeli institutions wake up to realities and fulfil their moral obligation to resist occupation and begin to protest the actions of their state. It is time for the international and Israeli communities to wake up to the challenge.
We ask the international community and fellow artists to consider carefully the implications of participating in the "Greenhouse" Project (Euromed Audiovisual II, proposal Nr. 15). We hope that considering that we live under a harsh military occupation and an apartheid system, it is understandable why we would not want to work with organizations that are part of the same government that imposes this system on us.
Cultural support cannot come in the form of "charity" or "to make oneself feel better" without addressing the root causes of the problems and ignoring the concerns of the Palestinian community. To us, this is not only undesirable but also objectionable. We have worked and will continue to work with those who have struggled with us to change political realities, to help us improve our lives, and who have been mutually respectful.
Attached:
-Original Letter to Europeaid Office
-Follow-up letter to Europeaid Office
-Official Letter from the Palestinian Ministry of Interior & Civil Affairs stating that the Ramallah Film Institute is not registered
-Translation of letter from Ministry of Interior & Civil Affairs
(Original letter to Europeaid Office)
Jan. 2, 2006
Catherine COLOMB-NANCY
Europeaid Office de Cooopération A
Rue de la Loi, 200
B-1049 Bruxelles
Belgique
Dear Ms. Catherine Colomb-Nancy
We, the undersigned, a group of Palestinian filmmakers and cultural workers, are writing to you to kindly request your attention to a matter of some importance.
We have just learned of your Short List for the Euromed Audiovisual II, for the development of documentary film. Among the short-listed recipients are the Ramallah Film Institute (Palestinian Authority) & The New Foundation for Cinema and Television (Israel) (proposal Nr. 15).
We realize how important this funding can be for the development of documentary film practices in the region and especially in Palestine. However, in order for Palestinian filmmakers to benefit from such an opportunity to develop their film careers, we believe this funding must be channeled in an acceptable framework, that is transparent, trusted, and rooted in the community.
We have two major concerns about this proposal. First, we would hope that the Euromed funding would be directed to a reputable and trustworthy Palestinian institution. This is not how most who work in the Palestinian film and arts community feel towards what is termed the Ramallah Film Institute, a project administered by Mr. Adam Zuabi. Second, we have great many reservations regarding the partnership of the aforementioned institute with the New Foundation in Israel, a government-funded organization.
On the latter issue, we would like to note that partnering or collaborating with Israeli government sponsored institutions is a very sensitive issue here in Palestine – due to such a partnership assuming an equal relationship between two such partners when in fact one is supported by a government that occupies the other. A great many promising projects have failed to achieve their goals because they failed to take into consideration the complexities involved and thus alienated the majority of the communities targeted. We wish not to see the Euromed project end as a failure. On the contrary, we believe that such an opportunity for funding can play a major rule in nurturing documentary film practices in Palestine - but money alone cannot achieve this. In order for this to happen we need the community of filmmakers to believe in the project and to trust in it enough to participate in it.
The main issue at hand is that we Palestinian filmmakers, many of us based in Ramallah, have never even heard of the Ramallah Film Institute. We do not know who they are, what their purpose is, and seriously question the legitimacy of such an institution as it seems not to be registered in Palestine, either as a school, an organization, or a company.
We also have many reservations stemming from previous activities carried out by Mr. Zuabi in the name of Palestinian cinema and Palestinian filmmakers. In particular, his work as the director of the Ramallah Film Festival has significantly alienated the local community and many cultural organizations in Palestine. One example is that after requesting of him to provide financial reports following last year's Ramallah Film Festival, his entire board of directors resigned as they were never provided with this important data involving the project. Therefore, we would like to raise these concerns and to signal the reservations of a great many established cultural figures here towards any project involving Mr. Zuabi, before the Euromed fund decisions are finalized.
We are writing to you kindly asking that you take these concerns into account before you arrive at a decision. We would be grateful for the opportunity to meet with you or any other official in charge of this project in the organization. We believe such a meeting or exchange of views and concerns can greatly assist in ensuring that the Euromed project will succeed in achieving its goals.
Sincerely yours,
1. Sobhi al-Zobaidi, Filmmaker & Academic. Ramallah, Palestine
2. Annemarie Jacir, Filmmaker & Curator, Ramallah, Palestine
3. Najwa Najjar, Filmmaker, Ramallah, Palestine
4. Elia Sulieman, Filmmaker, Paris/Nazareth, Palestine
5. Hany Abu Assad, Director, Netherlands/Nazareth, Palestine
6. Rashid Masharawi, Palestinian Filmmaker
7. Mai Masri, Filmmaker, Nablus/Beirut
9. Raed Al-Helou, Filmmaker, Ramallah
10. Ismail Habbash, Filmmaker, Ramallah
11. Rowan Faqih, Filmmaker, Ramallah
12. Ahmad Habash, Director/Animator, Ramallah
13. Nizar Hasan, Filmmaker, Nazareth
14. Raed Andoni, Producer, Ramallah
15. Hanna Elias, Director, Los Angeles /Ramallah
16. Dr. Alia Arasoughly, Filmmaker, Sociologist of Culture (Cinema)
17. Hanna Atallah,Filmmaker, Ramallah,Palestine
18. Abdel Salam Shehada, Filmmaker, Gaza
19. Emily Jacir, Artist, Rome/Ramallah
20. Dima Abu Ghoush, Filmmaker, Ramallah
21. Fatin Farhat, Director, Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah
22. Adania Shibli, Writer, London/Jerusalem
23. Shadi Zmorrod, Theater actor and Director, Palestine
24. Liana Badr, Minstry of Culture, Palestine
25. Hicham Kayed, Filmmaker, Lebanon
26. Khaled Katamish, Director, El-Funon Dance Troupe
27. Noora Baker, Activity Coordinator, Popular Art Center, Palestine
28. Mohammed Atta, Director, Wishah Dance Troupe, Palestine
29. Iman Hammouri, Director, Popular Art Center, Palestine
30. Tareq Abu-Lughod, Filmmaker, Amman
31. Issa Freij, D.P., Filmmaker, Jerusalem
32. Azza Al Hassan, Filmmaker, Amman, Jordan
33. Nahed Awwad, Filmmaker, Ramallah
34. Saed Andoni, Producer/Director, Ramallah
35. Ghada Terawi, Filmmaker, Palestine
36. Rawan Sharaf, Production Designer, Jerusalem, Palestine
37. George Khleifi, Filmmaker & Academic, Ramallah
38. Kamal Aljafari, Cologne/Ramle, Palestine
39. Reem Fadda, Director, Palestinian Association for Contemporary Art (PACA)
40. Khaled Elayyan, Alkasaba Theater, Ramallah
(follow up letter to EU)
Jan. 29th, 2006
Dear Ms. Carla Montesi
We sent a letter to Ms. Catherine Colomb-Nancy three weeks ago but have not received a response or acknowledgement of our letter. We have also tried calling her office but have not received an answer.
The attached letter is a petition from 40 Palestinian filmmakers who are very concerned about the shortlisting of a partnership proposal between the Ramallah Film Institute and the New Foundation for Cinema and Television (Israel).
We have voiced our reasons for our concerns, in addition to the fact that the Ramallah Film Institute is only an Israeli-registered Institution in Jerusalem and is not registered with the Palestinian Authority, as noted in the Euromed proposal. This means that it is not eligible for funds allocated to the Palestinian territories, which is also misleading on the part of both the Ramallah Film Institute and Euromed.
We would very much like to discuss this matter further with you. Our letter from three weeks ago was sent to Ms. Catherine Colomb-Nancy via fax, email, and regular mail. We would be very appreciative if there were some kind of acknowledgement of our correspondence.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Sobhi Zobaidi, Najwa Najjar, and Annemarie Jacir
on behalf of the Filmmakers and Cultural Institutions
cc'd: Catherine Colomb-Nancy
translation of official document
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestinian National Authority
Ministry of Interior & Civil Affairs
(December 31st, 2005)
To : Mr. Falah Abu Al-Rob
Director of Licensing Department - Ministry of Culture
Subject: Ramallah Film Institute
Regarding the above-mentioned subject, we inform you that the Ramallah Film Institute is not officially registered with the Ministry of Interior & Civil Affairs, and we support that you will not deal with the Institute until they officially register.
With thanks,
Fadwa Al-Sha'ar
General Administrator for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
Palestinian National Authority