ihath

I didn't feel like dressing up for Halloween this year. So I borrowed these two witch fingers from my daughter's witch costume.



When people ask me what am I dressed as .... I say in a deep and mysterious voice.

"I am a woman on the verge of evil ..... those are the most dangerous kind".

You can download this clip of my first public speaking engagement. As I look at it, I cringe with embarrassment. I make all the mistakes that you are not supposed to me. I am visibly nervous. My talk went too long, I should have been brief.


I assure you that my public speaking skills have dramatically improved since.

I am reminded of the game my husband and I play when I am mad at him.

I will put on my longest most serious face, and he will frequently do everything in his power to make me smile.

Funny faces, jokes, tickles, he knows that once I smile I won’t be able to pretend that I am mad at him anymore. When all else fails, he will say:
Za’atarah: Don’t be like that.
ihath: like what?
Za’atarah: Like a grumpy person who won’t smile even when he is presented with warm freshly baked bread.

The last statement always conjures up in my mind Za’atarah’s stories about how his mother always got up at 5 am every morning to bake fresh bread for the whole family.

Every Palestinian man seems to have a story about how his mother sacrificed herself in hopes that he would have a better life.

It must have been nice to get freshly baked bread every single morning. Only a true grump would not find a reason to smile.

These thoughts play in my mind as I conjure up the movie Paradise Now that I watched during the International Film Festival.

Saeed is asked to smile by a photographer. The photographer insists, Saeed persists in his refusal to smile. Meet Saeed, a young man living in Nablus in the occupied territories.

Ironically, Saeed means happy in Arabic.

While I spent time in occupied territories, I could always tell the difference between the locals and the foreigners. The ones the grew up there and the ones that were visiting. The local ones rarely, if ever smiled. The ones visiting from abroad smiled liberally, when greeting you, when saying goodbye, when talking about something funny and for no reason at all.

Meet Suha, she smiles lots. Guess what? … she grew up in France. People are nice to her because she is the daughter of a martyr and a hero, also she is cute.

In a Hollywood movie, Suha would make Saeed smile by the end of the movie, at one point you think that surly the movie is going in that direction.

So many similarities with a Hollywood movie

There is a cute leading female.
Two guys dressed in a black suits, which reminded me of the Men In Black movie and the Blues Brothers movie.
Suspense.

One quarter into the movie the suspense was so high, that my friend who came to see the movie with me looked like she couldn’t take it. I offered to hold her hand. For about five minutes we both forgot about the north American rule that females are not supposed to hold hands in public and behaved like we would in the middle east despite the fact that my friend is not middle eastern, we held hands. She looked at me and whispered, you must find this even more distressing than I do, I nodded with my head to say that I am ok. I wanted to tell her that everything in this movie is familiar, the language, the mentality, the way people talk, I have seen it all before, only in real life. It must be distressing to be exposed to all this within 15 minutes.

My favorite scene in the Blues Brothers is when they are going around looking for the other members of their band. They knock on a door and a lady with hair curlers opens the doors. She looks at the two men wearing black suits and asks them
lady in hair curlers: Are you guys with the FBI?
Blues Brothers: No Ma’am. We are on a mission from God. We are musicians.

That scene cracks me up each time I see it.

Saeed and his friend are not sure if they are on a mission from god or not. When they discuss the nature of their mission, they don’t seem sure if god is behind it or not. You wish they were religious crazy fanatics on a mission from god …… that is the lie that we have been told in western media, time and again ….. surprise! …… they are not. Religion plays a role ….. but a very small role in the events that are about to take place.

Paradise Now is not a Hollywood movie

No happy ending
No violence
No car chase scene
No sex
One small brief episode of swearing and it is very brief indeed

As I watched the movie, I wished I could have reach out to Saeed to shake his shoulder. I wished I could tell him, “Saeed! you are young and beautiful, your whole life is ahead of you, don’t throw it away”. Suha tries hard to play the audience voice in that movie. She even speaks Arabic with a funny accent to mark her foreignness and out-sidedness. She is treated with polite decorum, but nothing she says seems to address the realities on the ground. She is there in person, but far removed at the same time.

When the movie ended there was complete silence in the whole movie theater. You could have heard a pin drop. In most movies, you can hear the tidbits of conversation about the movie as you walk out. Again, as we walked out, there was complete and stunned silence. Nobody was saying anything, not even to their mobile phone. Everybody was completely and utterly stunned by the movie and so overwhelmed with what they just saw they were speechless.

I had seen several movies in this years International Film Festival, not as many as I would have liked to because I was busy with other things. But this movie made the International Festival for me. After I watched it, I had no desire to see any moremovies, this one will live with me for a long time.

In short, absolutely brilliant. If you are planning to see it, prepare to see a truly thought provoking movie that will rock your world.

I bought a ticket and sat inside waiting for the movie to begin. As soon as the credits started rolling I went “Darn! ….. I can’t believe I had bought a ticket to a David Cronenberg movie …. this must be my unlucky day”. I deliberately avoid David Cronenberg’s movies. His movies had disturbed me and kept me awake at night after I had watched them in the past. I also have to confess that in some of his movies I felt like I didn’t understand what the movie was about. “Dead Ringers” … what is that movie about? … what does the title mean? “Naked Lunch” …. what did the ending mean? …. did the bullet in the forehead mean?. I spend hours thinking about it without an answer. I must be too stupid or perhaps his movies are too smart. I do have to admit that I totally dig eXistenZ. Although some of the content has the Cronenberg signature gore, I thought it was a smart multi layered dealing with the concept of reality, fantasy and virtual realities. I saw it right around the time I saw the first of the Matrix movies which deals with similar themes. I think eXistenZ is the better movie …. for one thing people enter the virtual reality completely by choice knowing full well it might consume them …. a much more interesting plot if you ask me, instead of the typical good against evil typical Hollywood plot of Matrix. Despite my high appreciation for eXistenz … I had avoided seeing any of the subsequent Cronenberg movies because I just can’t handle the gore …. it is too much for my temperament.

So here I was sitting in a movie theater about to see a movie I didn’t want to see. I was supposed to have a romantic dinner with my husband and I was supposed to go see a Czech movie in the Vancouver International Film Festival instead. But my husband got caught up in something else and he decided to run off somewhere. I was stuck at home by myself, since the kids were spending the night at my parents house … feeling sorry for myself. Then it struck me …. “Why don’t I try to make the best of the evening and go out on my own.” It was too late to catch the Czech movie we were planning to see and so instead I got dressed and went to a restaurant that I enjoy and my husband hates. This was the perfect opportunity to enjoy something my husband dislikes. I went the Afghan restaurant called East is East . My husband doesn’t dig the whole organic wholesome food concept and feels the restaurant is too expensive for what you get. But I like eating there because the food tastes good. When I got there the place was packed and I was asked to share a table with another woman who was also there on her own. My dinner companion turned out to be a charming and pleasant person to have a conversation with. She told me she was visiting Vancouver to attend a course on something called Ayurvedic cooking …. something I had never heard off. She told me that East is East is one of the few Vancouver restaurants that bases its menu of this concept. She then proceeded to tell me a bit on Ayurvedic cooking concept. How interesting that I have been eating at this restaurant for years never realizing why it tasted so good. So …. after a pleasant dinner and an interesting conversation with a complete stranger …. I didn’t feel like going home yet. I decided to drive to the nearest mainstream movie theater and go see a random movie. Upon arrival to the movie theater I studied the schedule and discovered that a movie called “A history of violence” is going to be shown in 15 minutes. I bought a ticket and sat down ready to be surprised.

As soon as I saw the name of the director I felt annoyed at myself. Should I just walk out? Should I sit through it? I just bought the ticket. Oh well! ok I will stay and watch the movie … I thought to myself. I was pleasantly surprised the second time that evening. Not only did I understand what the movie was about, I really really enjoyed it. There was a bit of the Cronenberg gore, but it was very small and contained. The story line was compelling. I don’t want to tell you much about the movie since the element of surprise at different parts of the movie is an important part of why the movie works.

The movie stars Viggo Mortensen, the same actor that plays Aragon in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In Aragon he plays the character that we all wish we could be like, the courageous, humble, person of integrity that becomes a king and therefore fulfilling his destiny, in this movie he plays a character that is running away from his destiny. You would never ever want to become this non Aragon and you would certainly never would want to find yourself in his predicament. The movie deals with violence as a concept. It presents us at the beginning of the movie an act of violence that is completely justified. It is so justified that the whole audience in the movie is relieved when it happens. But then we watch that single act of violence begetting more acts of violence and effecting other people. Things spiral out of control and the innocent and young are drawn in. Our non Aragon find himself torn, conflicted and at odds with himself.

There is a sex scene in the movie that I don’t wish to give away ….all I will say is non Aragon is violent when he is most vulnerable … that look of desperation on his face at the end of that scene tells the whole story.

That night I went to bed contemplating many things. Is violence always wrong? What if you have a chance to stop horrid violence by committing a minor act of violence …. is not criminal to not interject when you can? Can violence ever be forgiven, can you ever move on?

And more importantly is it possible that a directors who creates such vile graphic violence movies turn out to be a pacifist?

Iranian players Saedeh Ahmadi, 11, right, and Shihrin Nasiri, 22, left, fights for ball with Stephanie Al-Naber, 8, of Jordan, center, during the final match at the West Asian Soccer Federation Women's Championship cup in Amman, Jordan

source

hat tip to my friend Huda in Bahrain

About 14 years ago, as part of attempts to broaden awareness on Palestine we would organize Palestinian movie showings here in Vancouver. Whenever the issue of arab-48 was brought up, there was a single movie whose name would come up.

Wedding in Galilee.



At the time, there seemed to be no other movie by and about the Palestinians who remained inside Israel proper after the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948, commonly called arab-48 or “Arabs of the inside” or “Israeli Arabs”.
As a result I have seen that movie more than 10 times. Don’t get me wrong …. it’s a good movie …. it’s just not the sort of movie that you want to see more than 10 times ….. believe me. There is no Julia Andrews singing “the hills are alive with the sound of music” nor a chilling classic scene of a murder in the shower with a sharp knife. However there is a skillful and realistic depiction of a small Palestinian village. It talks about both the positive and negative aspects of that society through the prism of a wedding being attended by the Israeli military governor of the time. Many interesting interactions happen and you are left with a fairly accurate idea what it is like to live in that small village. The movie contains some harsh scenes and so if you are the sensitive type you might want to avoid it.

For all of you silly north Americans who will run out and go see the movie, let me clarify a very important point. Those scenes are not about homosexuality in the Arab society. All you silly homophobic north Americans don’t understand that same sex friendships in other societies can be deep and meaningful. In Arab society men friends frequently hug or even hold hands as a show of friendship and this does not imply that they are gay. Just because your society assumes that all closeness between same sex people must be sexual, please don’t make the same assumption about other societies.

Phew! …. now that I got that off my chest, once and for all, I can continue with the post.

My husband would watch the movie as if he was looking through the family album.

“Look! …. that is the street I used to walk on my way to school everyday”
“I know that actor personally”
“ That is exactly the way my mother used to cook when I was a kid”

He would exclaim throughout the movie. It was both charming and annoying at the same time.

Thankfully, there have been new movies made by Palestinians living in the Galilee and so I have been pardoned from having to watch the same movie over and over again.

For those of you who didn’t catch the drift, the name of the movie is a reference to the Wedding in Galilee mentioned in the Bible. Where Jesus attended a wedding in the village of Cana and performed the miracle of transforming water into whine. Cana now is called Kufer Kanna, Kufer means village in Palestinian dialect, and is visited by Christian tourists every year who buy really bad wine that is made at the village so that they can go home and brag to their friends that they got wine from the village of Cana mentioned in the bible. My attachment to Kufer Kanna has nothing to do with the bible, nor bad wine, but rather with the fact that many of my husband’s relatives live there. My husband was born and raised in the neighboring village of Mash-had, which is about a 15 minute walk from Kufer Kanna. Mash-had is not mentioned in the bible, and is not visited by tourists, not Christian nor any other kind, and does not have an awful wine factory. However while living in Jerusalem we would visit there frequently and attend many of the local weddings. I came to realize why a wedding in Galilee was worth a mention in a holy book, because weddings there are truly unique and worth attending ….. even by Jesus.

While the rest of middle east have gone the way of the west in wedding ceremonies, by embracing silly white dress, silly white cake and food banquet at a fancy hotel with a band; the Palestinians living in Galilee have managed to maintain ethnic authenticity and local customs in their weddings. A wedding there is typically celebrated over three days. A day to celebrate the bride, a day to celebrate the groom and a day to celebrate them both together. The wedding is held in the streets of the town and everybody from the town and neighboring towns are invited.

I used to like waking up early on a wedding day so that I would go watch the women doing the cooking for the wedding. A group of elderly women have been designated to do the cooking for all the weddings in the village. Youngsters like myself are not allowed to participate in any aspect of the food preparation, we are only allowed to sit and watch and clean the dirty dishes and pots afterwards. These elderly women cooked in huge pots on an open fire in the yard of a designated house. These were the hugest pots I had ever seen in my life. They looked like water tanks only they were round. Wedding food is always the same dish ….. mansaf. Mansaf is a traditional Palestinian dish of rice, cooked lamb and yogurt sauce. No need for a miracle by a holy man since the food these elderly women cooked would easily feed thousands.

Dancing and music provided by the participants and performed in the streets and main square of the town, these weddings were tiring but fun. Below is a picture from one of the weddings I attended in Mash-had.



While living in Jerusalem, I always enjoyed visiting my in-laws in Mash-had and the neighboring city of Nazareth. these weekend visits provided a welcome refuge from the psychotic Jerusalem.



I remember a Palestinian friend who was named after a famous Islamic battle, I secretly called her Mrs. Battle. The nick name fitted her personality. Mrs. Battle was born and raised in Jerusalem, east Jerusalem, the Palestinian Jerusalem. I remember taking Mrs. Battle to west Jerusalem for a girls night out. I took her to the trendy neighborhood of Emik Rafaeem. We sat in the trendy coffee shop of Kappeet, the one people go to be seen. The one Israeli celebrities and politicians hangout in. Mrs. Battle was amazed. The scenery, the ambience, everything was new to her. She was slightly uncomfortable. You see …. this was her time visiting this side of her home town.

I remember my co-worker Rachel, also born and raised in Jerusalem, west Jerusalem, the Jewish Jerusalem. I took her one weekend to east Jerusalem for a day long adventure. We walked around the old city. Visited a bunch of churches. Walked around Salh al Deen street. We did some shopping and had humous at Abu Shoukri. Rachel enjoyed our little excursion enormously, this was also her first visit to this side of the her hometown. She too seemed a little uncomfortable.

“Jerusalem is a unified city” …. my foot.

Jerusalem must be the only city in the world where tourists can introduce the locals to their own hometown.


But Nazareth was non of that. Despite the Israeli state’s effort to build another Nazareth, calling it the higher Nazareth, everybody knew where the real Nazareth was located and that is where everybody would hang out. I used love walking around the narrow streets of Nazareth. I would wander around in the old market, visit the clothing shops, a mandatory to visit to the Arabic sweets shop where I would have my favorite dessert in the world, knaffeh. Knaffeh is sweetened white cheese topped with shredded filo pastry that id dyed orange and the whole this is drenched is sugary water called qater. I know that the concept of sweet white cheese and filo pastry might seem weird to some of you, but trust me you have to try knaffeh to discover what heaven must taste like.


But my favorite place to visit in Nazareth is the Basilica of the Annunciation. I usually find churches depressing and don’t enjoy visiting them, but this church is different and unique. For some reason, which I can’t explain, I always feel something when I go in there, a feeling I can’t describe, a feeling of peace and contentment, this is the only church in I have ever been to that gave me that feeling. I always go in there for a visit whenever I am visiting Nazareth and I always ask my husband to visit the church for me when he goes to Nazareth without me. The church looks like no other church I had ever seen. It has a very modern design, yet you would never mistake it be anything other than a church. The Italian architect, Antonio Barluzzi, was heavily criticized for his design. Most churches built in the middle east were built by European, Russian or Greek money and hence look like churches that have been transplanted from those far away countries. I have a feeling that the architect was trying to design a church that looked local, as if it was built by the local population, as if it was middle eastern …. people seem to forget that is where it all began. Jesus wasn’t European … you know!. In the back courtyard of the basilica there are wall murals that depict images of virgin Mary and baby Jesus made in various countries around the world. It is a very interesting display because the images change drastically from county to country. Mary and baby look black when depicted in African countries, blonde from European countries and look Asians when depicted in south east asia countries. It is interesting to walk around and contemplate how people create religious icons in their own image. The contrast is almost provocative. A church with a display that makes you think and question? ….. how radical.

Two years ago, our local trash newspaper, The Vancouver Sun, published an image that some scientist made up trying to guess what Jesus looked like from analyzing skulls of people from the same period. I took one look at the composed picture and gasped. The similarity was astounding. It looked just like my beloved husband Za'atarah.