A weekend that leads to recommendations
Mar. 2nd, 2025 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabby Consuming media is not the same as activism. That said.
Yesterday, I went to see a screening of Where Olive Trees Weep. If you haven't seen it or there's not a screening near you, you can PWYC on the internet. It's about Palestinians, trauma, and resistance, focusing primarily on journalist, activist, and therapist Ashira Darwish, with appearances from Dr. Gabor Maté, Amira Hass, and Ahed Tamimi. It's beautifully shot and compassionately written and edited.
The hardest thing about the film is that it was shot in 2022. You know. Before things got as bad as they are now. And yet it's still unbearable to see.
Then today I saw Omar El Akkad speak on his new book, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. Which I haven't read yet, but I've read a bunch of his articles and American War, all of which I loved. I go to a lot of readings and this one was probably the best. He's quiet and self-effacing, like he is rather surprised to find himself in front of a microphone speaking at the first of two sold-out events. And every word out of his mouth is just the most insightful, thoughtful thing you've heard anyone say. I can't wait to read this book and I already know that I'll weep big ugly tears.
Anyway. There's two things to check out, but then you (and I) have to go do something.
Yesterday, I went to see a screening of Where Olive Trees Weep. If you haven't seen it or there's not a screening near you, you can PWYC on the internet. It's about Palestinians, trauma, and resistance, focusing primarily on journalist, activist, and therapist Ashira Darwish, with appearances from Dr. Gabor Maté, Amira Hass, and Ahed Tamimi. It's beautifully shot and compassionately written and edited.
The hardest thing about the film is that it was shot in 2022. You know. Before things got as bad as they are now. And yet it's still unbearable to see.
Then today I saw Omar El Akkad speak on his new book, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. Which I haven't read yet, but I've read a bunch of his articles and American War, all of which I loved. I go to a lot of readings and this one was probably the best. He's quiet and self-effacing, like he is rather surprised to find himself in front of a microphone speaking at the first of two sold-out events. And every word out of his mouth is just the most insightful, thoughtful thing you've heard anyone say. I can't wait to read this book and I already know that I'll weep big ugly tears.
Anyway. There's two things to check out, but then you (and I) have to go do something.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-02 09:32 pm (UTC)Do I dare recommend yet another book? Well, I will anyway, even if it leads to my having to ban yet another Dreamwidth member from commenting on my blog posts!
The Tale of a Wall: Reflections on the Meaning of Hope and Freedom. By Nasser Abu Srour, translated from the Arabic by Luke Leafgren. c2022 for the original Arabic, 2024 for the English translation.
It's a powerful and moving memoir, compulsively readable.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-02 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-03 04:06 am (UTC)It looks amazing based on the trailer alone.
But, yeah... knowing it got worse...
If I see this, I'll probably try and see it with No Other Land.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
I think about this phrase a lot. I'm not sure where I first heard it (or variants thereof). I used to think it was true. Now, I am not so sure.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-03 12:22 pm (UTC)One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
As far as I know, it started with Omar El Akkad himself, who posted a few weeks into the bombing, “One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.”
Which is absolutely right. Source: I'm fucking old. I am old enough to remember when opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (especially the latter, because we need to free women by bombing them) was politically controversial. I'm old enough to remember when Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. I have a friend who was heavily involved in anti-apartheid organizing and CSIS tapped her phone.
So yeah, all the children, maybe grandchildren, of the nice liberal Jews who want a two-state solution but are comfy with 50,000 people dying first will look in horror on this, for sure.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-06 09:54 am (UTC)He may have phrased it, but I'm 90% sure I saw it in reddit pre-J6. I say J6 because I remember people at the time saying 'they'll never come back from this. MAGA will never admit they voted for Trump' then, and likely into the COIVD-19 era.
He did nail it in a phrase, though.
I'm old enough to remember when Nelson Mandela was a terrorist
You may live to be old enough to see Nelson Mandela re-classified a terrorist. :/
no subject
Date: 2025-03-06 12:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-06 12:53 pm (UTC)We WATCHED it happen in real time,
We are watching *this* in real time (let us was, the US as Russia uber allies) and it does not make sense,
None of it makes sense. to rational people.
(Rational people include my mother, who through all of the soft peddling, was shocked about the weekend meeting. She is a low-engagement voter here, so her outrage is... a lot).
no subject
Date: 2025-03-03 09:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-06 12:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-06 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-03 09:26 pm (UTC)"One day everyone wull always have been against this" is a great title.
thank you for reminding me -- I got embroiled in a stupid internecine fight and got dismayed out of my everyday efforts. I need to pick myself up again.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-04 12:00 pm (UTC)