A theater student from a Palestinian village without electricity, Mohammad Bakri became a renowned actor and film director. He has stirred controversy in Israel with his movie Jenin, Jenin—a documentary about the Israeli invasion of the refugee camp in Jenin as told entirely from the Palestinian residents themselves.
In 2002, Israeli military prevented journalists and human rights organizations from entering Jenin. Rumors of a massacre began to surface. Mohammad Bakri himself sneaked into the camp to ask the question, "What happened?"
In this interview, Miko Peled talks with Mohammad Bakri about his first introduction to theater and film in his village and being a young Palestinian theater student in the foreign world of Tel Aviv. They discuss his success as an actor with an Israeli audience and his maturing into someone ready to tell his own story.
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Author and activist, Miko Peled, hosts a live event with Palestinian film and theater actor, Saleh Bakri and Israeli actor and playwright, Guy Elhanan to discuss theatre in Palestine and Israel, censorship of the arts, inequity in funding, as well as their individual careers.
This event was held live via Zoom on Friday, January 29, 2021 @ 1 PM ET • 8 PM Palestine
Guest Panel:
Guy Elhanan wrote his PhD on bilingual and arabic #theatre practices and teaching possibilities. He is a #playwright, director, actor and lecturer who specializes in multicultural and interdisciplinary stage work, including music, mime and puppetry. Some of his work includes Mars at Sunrise, The Time that Remains, The Attack, and others.
Saleh Bakri is a #Palestinian #film and #theater actor. He began his career in the theater. His work includes Death and the Maiden, Salt of this Sea, When I Saw You, The Time that Remains, Wajib, and others.
Watch the entire 2020 Webinar Series by Miko Peled
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Author and activist, Miko Peled, hosts three brilliant cartoonists who have directed their art at highlighting the spirit of #Palestinian resistance in the face of a brutal Israeli regime. This event featured Sara Qaed, Mohammad Sabaaneh, and Carlos Latuff discussing the power of cartoons, Palestine’s rich history of the arts, and how each artist approaches their work.
This event was held via Zoom on Tuesday, January 19, 2021.
Watch all of Miko's webinar events at www.mikopeled.com
Miko Peled is an author, writer, speaker, and human rights activist living in the United States. He is considered by many to be one of the clearest voices calling for justice in Palestine, support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and the creation of a single democracy with equal rights in all of historic Palestine. He is the author of the book, “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine” and “Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five”.
Author and activist, Miko Peled, hosts a discussion with longtime friend and Australian activist, Robert Martin. From Palestine to Maradona: no topic will go untouched and no stone left unturned. Robert Martin is an Australian activist who lives in Melbourne.
Robert was drawn to Palestine at the commencement of Israel’s Gaza attack. Robert began to investigate what actually was happening in Palestine and couldn’t believe what he was reading. He knew he couldn’t rely on mainstream media for the truth so he decided to see for himself.
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Drop the charges against human rights defender, Issa Amro. We call on you to offer international protection for Issa and all other Palestinian human rights defenders prosecuted in the Israeli military court system.
Sign the petition at https://www.friendsofhebron.com/standwithissa
Internationally renowned human rights defender, Issa Amro, has been leading nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience campaigns against Israel. Issa is best known for calling attention to and resisting the vicious settler communities in #Hebron who regularly torment #Palestinians with total impunity.
Over the past decade, Israeli occupation forces have targeted Issa and fabricated 18 legal charges against him in what is a blatant campaign to disrupt his human rights work. The military judge presiding over these charges is a settler himself, with strong ties to Hebron’s settler community. Any day now, Issa’s fate will be decided by a court that convicts Palestinians at an astonishingly high rate.
Miko speaks directly with Issa about the political persecution he has faced, the charges that have been trumped up against him, and the invaluable work that is being done by his grassroots group, Youth Against #Settlements.
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The Prospect for Change in Palestine in 2021
Author and activist, Miko Peled, hosts a discussion about Palestinian-led #activism in 2021 with three tireless organizers, each representing a distinct region of Palestine: #AlNaqab desert, the #WestBank, and #Jerusalem. The four will discuss the prospect for change in the upcoming year as the role of grassroots activism and popular movement building becomes one of the few vehicles for enacting material change on the ground for #Palestinian civil society.
In this discussion, Miko Peled highlights the incredible work of three Palestinian activists, journalists, and organizers: Rafat Abu Aish from Al-Naqab, Baha Hilo from Bethlehem, and Khaled Farrag from Jerusalem. Each is working to build a movement for material change in their individual communities through a diversity of tactics and organizing structures.
As 2021 approaches and the official leadership among Palestine sits idly by or even worse, collaborates with Israeli security forces, the strength and popular support behind grassroots Palestinian activism becomes all the more critical. We will check in with all three of these remarkable men to learn about their respective projects, how they all tie together to clear the path for a free Palestine, and the greater prospect for change in 2021.
This event was held on Friday, December 11, 2020 @ 1 PM ET • 8 PM PALESTINE
Watch the Miko Peled Webinar Series at www.mikopeled.com
#FREEPALESTINE
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Summary:
We commemorate 12 years since the unjust prosecution of The Holy Land Foundation Five (HLF5): Shukri Abu Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain, Ghassan Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader, and Abdulrahman Odeh, who are each serving between 15 and 65 years in federal penitentiaries. Miko Peled, author of the 2018 book “Injustice: The Holy Land Foundation Five” will be speaking with the sons and daughters of the HLF5, in addition to Leena Al-Arayan, Executive Director of the Coalition for Civil Freedoms and the daughter of Dr. Sami Al- Arayan, another Palestinian-American who was deported on trumped up “terrorism charges”.
In 2013, Miko started investigating this pivotal case; one mired with miscarriages of justice with the men’s lawyers. He developed a relationship with the men’s families about the devastating effects the case had on their lives. He also traveled to the remote federal prison complexes where the men were held to conduct deep interviews. “Injustice” traces the labyrinthine course of this case, presenting a terrifying picture of governmental overreach in post-9/11 America.
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The status and fate of the over seven million Palestinian refugees, scattered throughout the world today as a result of Israel’s creation in 1948, persists as one of the most politically contested refugee crises of our time. What rights do these refugees currently hold? What challenges and opportunities does international law present to the plight of Palestinian refugees? Can the right of return for Palestinians to return to their ancestral homeland be actualized and how do we envision the return given the fraught political forces at play in both Israel and international governing bodies?
In this webinar, author and activist, Miko Peled invites the authors of the new book, Palestinian Refugees in International Law, Francesca P. Albanese and Lex Takkenberg, to share their research while providing a comprehensive analysis of the Palestinian refugee question in light of various areas of international law. The panel is rounded out by facilitator and activist, Umar al-Ghubari of Zochrot, an Israeli NGO working towards the reconceptualization of the return. The panel will provide a foundation in understanding the rights of Palestinian refugees as protected by international law, examine the role of Israel and the international community within this context, and envision what return could look like.
Guest Panel:
- Francesca P. Albanese: Research Affiliate for the Study of International Migration (ISIM), Georgetown University and Visiting Scholar, at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Studies Policies and International Affairs, American University of Beirut.
- Dr. Lex Takkenberg: Worked with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, from 1989 until late 2019 and is currently a freelance lecturer and consultant. He is the former Chief of the UNRWA Ethics Office.
- Umar al-Ghubari: A professional group facilitator, specializing in the Arab-Jewish conflict. He is also a coordinator in the Karev educational program. Umar works for Zochrot, an NGO that formed in 2002 to promote acknowledgement and accountability for the ongoing injustices of the Nakba and the reconceptualization of the Return as the imperative redress of the Nakba.
Watch all of Miko Peled's webinars at www.mikopeled.com
#FREEPALESTINE
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In September 2018, the UK #Labour Party adopted a controversial guideline on antisemitism issued by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). This definition folds in criticism of Israel’s treatment of #Palestinians into the definition, establishing a powerful apparatus of censorship which would massively punish #Palestinian rights advocates. Pro-Israel groups along with the UK’s neo-liberal establishment worked tirelessly to tarnish the character of Jeremy #Corbyn (Labour Party leader), Chris Williamson (Labour MP), and several other members of Labour. This sophisticated disinformation and smear campaign has culminated in Corbyn’s recent and shocking ousting from UK Labour in late October of 2020. Miko Peled hosts a roundtable discussion with Chris Williamson (Former Labour Party MP), Asa Winstanley (Journalist), and Tony Greenstein (Activist, Author) who will analyze the events and forces that led to Corbyn’s fall at the hands of pro-Israels special interest groups. Chris Williamson, Asa Winstanley, and Tony Greenstein all faced pressure and/or oustings from their respective roles within the UK Labour Party over similar smears of “antisemitism”.
In this online event, we will hear from each of these esteemed UK journalists, politicians and activists who have been directly affected by and witnessed this vast smear campaign and political suppression on the ground level.
Guest Panel:
- Chris Williamson: Former Labour MP for Derby North, City Council Leader, Activist
- Asa Winstanley: Journalist, Associate Editor @ The Electronic Intifada
- Tony Greenstein: Activist, Founding member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, author of “A History of Fighting Fascism in Brighton”
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Author and activist, Miko Peled, for an online event featuring two #Palestinian citizens of #Israel, Maisam Jaljuli and Hind Hajar Salman, who are organizing and fighting for justice in their respective communities amidst the political realities in Israel. Palestinian citizens of Israel like Masiam and Hind live, at best, as second-class citizens. Since the #Nakba, Israel has sustained massive divisions between Palestinian and Jewish citizens as it pertains to land access, erasure of Palestinian history and identity, participation in the electoral process, and cultural alienation among a dominant Jewish population.
This event was held on Wednesday, September 28, 2020 at 9 AM (PT) • 12 PM (ET)
Guest Panel:
Maisam Jaljuli is a social, feminist and political activist, chairperson of the women’s organization, Na’amat, chair of the Hadash political faction, co-chair of Sikkuy: Association for Advancing Civic Equality boards of the Histadrut Labor Federation, Itach – Ma’aki: Women’s Lawyers for Social Justice, and a member of the leadership of Standing Together, a Jewish Arab movement that mobilize people for equality social justice and peace.
Hind Hajar Salman is the Administrative Assistant with Bedouins Without Borders, Coordinator of the Women’s Center, Member of Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Watch all of Miko Peled's webinars at www.mikopeled.com Subscribe to "The Miko Peled Podcast" on all major podcast applications.
Watch the video and all Miko's webinars at www.mikopeled.com
