Haim Watzman Can Jewish and Arab Israeli film students understand each other better if they watch a 50-year old French film about race relations in the Ivory Coast? Filipa César, a Portuguese artist, had the idea of showing a multi-cultural collection of film students in this country Jean Rouch’s Cinéma-vérité work The Human Pyramid and [...]
The Scene at Cinema South II: Jewish-Arab Dialogue on Film
June 10th, 2009 · 5 Comments · Culture and Ideas
Tags: Cinéma-vérité·Filipa César·Israel-Arab conflict·Israeli cinema·Jean Rouch·Jewish-Arab dialogue
No Happy Endings in Gaza
December 30th, 2008 · 13 Comments · Politics and Policy
Haim Watzman I’ve got war refugees in my home today. I mean my daughter’s fellow second-year students from the animation program at Sapir College, located right next to Sderot. The campus is under fire and has shut its gates, so these budding cartoonists are unable to work on their projects or attend their classes. The [...]
Tags: Gaza Strip·Hamas·Israel·Israel Defense Forces·Israel-Arab conflict·Palestinians
Arab Poetry for Jews: Sasson Somekh
December 2nd, 2008 · No Comments · Culture and Ideas
Haim Watzman “If we had soldiers read the poetry their enemies write, we could prevent war,” declared Haim Gouri , an old poet and an old soldier, at Jerusalem’s literary café Tmol Shilshom last night. Sasson Somekh, whose new memoir was the subject of the evening, smiled. While he was polite enough not to contradict [...]
Tags: Arabic·Arabic literature·Arabic poetry·Haim Gouri·Hebrew literature·Israel·Israel-Arab conflict·Israeli literature·Mahmoud Darwish
An Arab Prime Minister for Israel?
December 2nd, 2008 · 9 Comments · Politics and Policy
Haim Watzman In the wake of Barack Obama’s victory in the U.S., there have been a spate of op-eds and blog posts on whether an Arab could ever become prime minister of Israel. Some present it as a challenge to Zionism, at least as conventionally conceived, while others try to explain why such a thing [...]
Tags: Arabs·Barack Obama·Israel·Israel-Arab conflict·Israeli politics

