Film event: From Balfour to Banksy: Divisions and Visions in Palestine

7pm, Sat, 16 March 2019 at The Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2JL

100 years ago Britain’s Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour set in motion the vision of Israel……..

His ‘Balfour Declaration’ had another, disastrous impact: the dispossession of the Palestinian people.

This film looks at other visions — including a wide range of views from occupied Palestine today, ranging from anger to attempts at envisioning a future. It also shows the vision of another Englishman: the contemporary artist Banksy, who has created in Palestine a hotel that is also a remarkable satirical art installation.

How do today’s Palestinians live behind the ‘security wall’? What change must come?

Edinburgh Action for Palestine are organising two events on Sunday, 28 October 2018 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of one of the most brutal massacres of the ethnic cleansing carried out to create the state of Israel.

On 29 October 1948, the villagers of Al Dawayima were the target of an attack by the Israeli army. It was particularly brutal with up to 100 peaceful villagers slaughtered. The children had their heads beaten with ’sticks’ – adults were blown up in their homes or in the local Darawish Mosque. Some, seeking refuge in caves, when ordered to leave by this ‘first wave of conquerors’ were machine gunned. There were reports of rape followed by death. Bodies were stuffed down the village well. As with Deir Yassin, some months earlier, these acts of slaughter terrified the area and stimulated the flow of refugees, the abandonment of their land, as they sought refuge.

What’s happening on 28 October?

First, at 1pm, there will be a gathering at a memorial plaque in the Meadows, just off Melville Drive.

Then, at 2pm there will be a public meeting “Remembrance and Resistance: How We Can Build a Just Future” with speaker Nadia Hijab.  Details here.

Also note the Scottish Friends of Palestine will shortly have erected a memorial stone to Al Dawayima and intend to conduct a memorial event the following day – which is the exact 70th anniversary of the massacre.  SFP have provided the following information:

Al Dawayima memorial, Monday 29 October 2018 1pm at Regent Road Park, Edinburgh EH1 3DG

[Directions: Regent Road (the A1) is a continuation of Princes Street at the Waverley Station end of Princes St. From the station the road curves round to the right along the base of Calton Hill. The Park is to be found on your right. Please note that the stone will only be in place a few days before the memorial.]

Edinburgh Action for Palestine have arranged a public meeting at 2pm Sunday, 28 October 2018.  The speaker will be Nadia Hijab, co-founder & board president of Al-Shabaka: the Palestinian Policy Network.  The meeting follows the commemoration at 1pm on the same day of the Al Dawayima massacre in 1948.

Nadia Hijab is co-founder and board president of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. She served as its Executive Director between 2011 and March 2018. A writer, public speaker and media commentator, Hijab’s first book, Womanpower: The Arab debate on women at workwas published by Cambridge University Press and she co-authored Citizens Apart: A Portrait of Palestinians in Israel (I. B. Tauris). She was Editor-in-Chief of the London-based Middle East magazine before serving at the United Nations in New York. She is a co-founder and former co-chair of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and now serves on its advisory board.

Talk & discussion 2 – 4 pm

History of the Nakba display can be viewed from 1pm & after the talk

Summerhall (TechCube), Summerhall Pl, Edinburgh EH9 1PL