A Film About Deir Yassin

The times a changin'

The world is starting to wake about to the Palestinian issue. No, the world has woken up. America has been sleeping, but the now the country's left is finally starting to warm up to the Palestinian issue. Read this account of a New York gathering of prominent individuals for a book on the life of an exceptional Arab woman.

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Deir Yassin was an massacre committed against the Palestinian people by a Stern Zionist militia headed by a future prime minister of Israel, Menachem Begin.

The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when around 120 fighters from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups invaded Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, a Palestinian-Arab village of roughly 600 people. The invasion occurred as Jewish forces sought to relieve the blockade of Jerusalem during the civil war that preceded the end of British rule in Palestine.

Around 107 villagers, including women and children, died during the invasion. Some were shot, while others died when hand grenades were thrown into their homes. Several were taken prisoner and may have been killed after being paraded through the streets of West Jerusalem, though accounts vary. Four of the attackers died, with around 35 injured. The killings were condemned by the leadership of the Haganah, the Jewish community's main paramilitary force, and by the area's two chief rabbis. The Jewish Agency for Israel sent King Abdullah of Jordan a letter of apology, which he rebuffed.

This is a story the American people deserve to hear so that the myth of Israel being a benign nation dies down. Fortunately one of the most talented directors of his generation, Julian Schnabel, is making a movie staring Slumdog Millionaire's Frida Pinto:

Pinto a starring in Miral, a film by director Julian Schnabel about Hind Husseini, a legendary Palestinian woman who founded an orphanage for Palestinian children who were orphaned by the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre, one of the most controversial attacks by Jewish militants fighting to establish the state of Israel.

The mere mention of Deir Yassin in these parts can start a fierce argument and its place in Israeli-Palestinian history is a source of constant friction.

Earlier this month, Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, fired a guide who compared the plight of Holocaust victims to Palestinians like those from Deir Yassin.

"Yad Vashem talks about the Holocaust survivors' arrival in Israel and about creating a refuge here for the world's Jews," the fired guide, Itamar Shapira, told Haaretz. "I said there were people who lived on this land and mentioned that there are other traumas that provide other nations with motivation. The Holocaust moved us to establish a Jewish state and the Palestinian nation's trauma is moving it to seek self-determination, identity, land and dignity, just as Zionism sought these things."

Shapira said he mentioned Deir Yassin because the ruins of the village can be seen from Yad Vashem.

It's not clear how much Schnabel's film will focus on the controversial massacre and how much it will focus on the establishment of Husseini's orphanage in the aftermath.

So far, though, the fact that Deir Yassin is a foundation for the film seems to have been ignored or obscured by the Israeli media.

In writing today about the Hollywood romance, Haaretz simply said the film "focuses on the interwoven lives of a few Israeli and Palestinian women, from the early years of the state through the early 1990s."

Last month, The Jerusalem Post omitted Deir Yassin in stating that the film "chronicles Hind Husseini's effort to establish an orphanage in the city following the creation of the state in 1948."

The Israeli media may choose to ignore Deir Yassin, but the world will soon join the Palestinians in knowing what happened.

As a Palestinian artist once said, "art is the most powerful weapon to deliver a message."

[P.S. Mark my words, pro-Israel groups will protest this movie and try to stop theaters from showing it.]