News in English     | 23.09.2019. 17:29 |

Damen: Our ultimate goal is to connect people to the story of Palestine

FENA Alma Zukanović

SARAJEVO, September 23 (FENA) - Documentary film should be part of the education system at universities and schools as a learning tool because the traditional education system has become too boring for young people, Palestinian director Rawan Damen told FENA. Yesterday she presented the project in Sarajevo, “Ambassador of Palestine: New Country, New Life”, as part of the second edition of the Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC).

The platform provides free watching of films and reading the articles on Palestine and the Israeli occupation, and the program is currently available in Arabic, English and Spanish.

The biggest inspiration for creating the platform came from the fact that many people love Palestine, but they do not know much about that country or they do not know where to find more accurate information or do not have time to read books on the subject.

For this reason, she realized that an online platform that allows you to watch films for free and read articles about Palestine and the Israeli occupation is a great way to find out more.

In doing so, she added, she has given new life to excellent documentaries about Palestine and has particularly praised Palestinian, Arab and international authors whose films have already been screened on television and festivals around the world, as well as on the YouTube platform.

"This is a new initiative, and I am not sure if we would succeed or not, because our ultimate goal is to connect people to the story of Palestine," she said.

Talking about her film "Al-Nakba" that brings the story of Palestine dating back from 1799 to the present, Damen said that major festivals in Western Europe and the United States do not want to screen films like this, even though she knows the jury members personally. She stressed that they did not want to give her a straightforward answer as to why they did not want her film to be shown, but that they always referred to the fact that each story should have two sides, although they never have problems with screening documentaries from Israel.

"But I'll keep trying," she said.

She also talked about her film “The Price of Oslo”, which brings the story about the signing of the 1993 Declaration on the Principles between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, noting that it was a very difficult process that took two years because there was no public document or photo, or footage of secret talks taking place in Oslo for nine months in 1993.

“In the middle of the process, I wanted to quit because I realized that I had read all the books that Palestinians, Israelis, and Norwegians had written on the subject, and did not find a single document, but I decided to continue,” she said.

Speaking about the daily life of Palestinians today, she said ethnic cleansing continues every day, but that it is done very slowly and thoroughly thought. She added that on a day, the Israelis kill two or three people, and sometimes they bomb the settlements and kill 15 people.

"The goal remains the same, they want the whole country for themselves, but without us," says Damen, adding that Israel is above all international laws because of the support it enjoys from the United States.

She believes that Palestinians need all forms of media to send the message across the board and for the public to have a better understanding of what is going on in that country.

"The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a level plain one, it is a designed colonization project that is ongoing," said director Rawan Damen, expressing her satisfaction that Al Jazeera Balkans is one of the media supporting them in their quest to spread the truth about Palestine.

(FENA) S. R.

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