Juliano Mer-Khamis with his wife and son. Photo: Helen Griffiths.
Israeli peace activist murdered
Ian Kirk-Smith gives an impression of a remarkable man
A leading Israeli peace activist has been murdered in Jenin. Born to a Jewish mother and Palestinian father, Juliano Mer-Khamis often referred to himself as 100 per cent Jewish and 100 percent Palestinian. The actor, director and political activist was shot dead outside the Freedom Theatre, which he helped run in a refugee camp in Jenin on the West Bank. His identity, for many peace activisits who had worked with him, embodied the dream of a binational state.
The theatre grew out of work started in 1987 by Mer-Khamis’s mother, Arna Mer, who was an Israeli Jewish activist for Palestinian rights. Her son took over the work in 1994. Both Mer-Khamis and his mother made clear that their goal in the theatre project in Jenin was an active resistance against the occupation. The Freedom Theatre reflected the radical vision of Mer-Khamis. In an interview in 2006 he said: ‘Nobody joined this project to heal. The therapeutic level is not to heal. It’s not to heal anybody from his violence. It is to create an awareness they can use in the right way.’
Helen Griffith, of Swansea Meeting, was one of eight Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) who visited the Freedom Theatre in February, and who met Juliano Mer-Khamis. She described him as a ‘visionary leader’, and said that they had talked about the nature of some of the work he was doing in drama and film.
‘He said the theatre had caused a lot of controversy,’ she said. ‘It had been burnt down once, but he thought now they were accepted. I particularly remember Juliano saying that work in theatre gives self-confidence and restores self-esteem. He was hoping the next intifada would be through drama, music and writing, not through violence.’
‘So much of our time as EAs is spent,’ she added, ‘learning about hardships and injustices faced by the Palestinians. This visit was a wonderful balance, so hopeful and positive. Muslims, Jews and Christians working together.’
She said that his death, and the fact he left a son and a wife pregnant with twins, was ‘devastating.’
Comments
It’s essential to note he was not opposed to violence. http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?ID=215116&R=R1 >> “Armed struggle is legitimate as long as it’s against an occupier and is done on occupied land,” he said in a 2009 press conference at his theater. >> “But if there isn’t history, culture and art behind one’s rifle, that rifle kills rather than liberates.” The second paragraph is welcome - and, Yehodua Porath, who helped found the modern Israeli peace movement, has written on a historical lack of basis in a distinct Palestinian Arab culture which is more than simply being not-Israeli - but it potentially does not go as far as Nelson Mandela did when he accepted that violent insurrection was harming his cause. There still is the implication that, even with the Freedom Theatre, JMK was supportive of violent means. From the same link: >> “I’m in favor of a single Palestinian state from the river to the sea,” he said at the same press conference. “If the Jews want to live with us, ahlan wasahlan (welcome).” Recall that modern Jordan is just as much part of the Mandate area. Also, from this I read that he did not consider himself to be in the same group as [the] Jews. He tried to sell himself as firmly anti-Israel, but in the end he still was murdered as a Jew. In the above link, a Jenini said he didn’t think he was murdered” for that reason, but went on to concede that it was due to promoting liberal values through the theatre. Add to this Vittorio Arrigoni’s similar murder [1]. He also talked the talk and walked the walk as far as support for Hamas et al. was concerned, but in the end was murdered as a decadent foreigner (by a group which included Hamas security guards). Like JMK it does not bode at all well for any stability in a bi-national state (excluding the 20% of current Israeli citizens who are non-Jewish). In the Peace Testimony, Wolf Mendl reminds himself that Christian pacifists have too often being willing to risk millions [of others] in the name of peace. This speaks to my condition.”
By A Mac G on 21st April 2011 - 11:55
Please login to add a comment
