Defying the Apartheid Wall: A Conversation With Palestinian Artist, Filmmaker, & Photographer Khaled Jarrar About His Documentary 'Infiltrators'

[A scene from the documentary film \"Infiltrators\"] [A scene from the documentary film \"Infiltrators\"]

Defying the Apartheid Wall: A Conversation With Palestinian Artist, Filmmaker, & Photographer Khaled Jarrar About His Documentary 'Infiltrators'

By : Malihe Razazan

Palestinian visual artist Khaled Jarrar’s award-winning documentary film, Infiltrators, documents how Palestinians defy Israel’s twenty-six-foot apartheid wall by jumping over the wall or going through underground tunnels. Thousands of Palestinians who take the harrowing journey for work, a short visit with loved ones or medical treatment they cannot receive in the West Bank. In this journey, they risk arrest, injury or even death. “Infiltrators” will be screened on 5 October 2013 as part of the third annual Palestine Film and Arts Festival in Washington DC, which kicks off on 28 September and will run through 8 October. Khaled Jarrar`s acclaimed film `Infiltrators` will be showcased on 5 October at 7 PM, followed by Q&A with Professor Noura Erakat. I spoke with Khaled about the making of Infiltrators and why it took him four years to finish it.

 

 

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"We are All Palestinian Prisoners": Exclusive Interview with Artist Hafez Omar (VIDEO)

Hafez Omar, the young Tulkarm-based artist and activist, is the man behind many of the images we have come to associate with online Palestinian and Arab revolutionary campaigns—from the hunger striker Khader Adnan`s stencil with a lock for a mouth, to the late Egyptian Azharite Sheikh Emad Effat, killed by the military police in Cairo in December. His most recent design, that of a faceless, blindfolded Palestinian prisoner, became a Facebook sensation as thousands adopted it and other variations of the image to raise awareness about the countless prisoners observing a hunger strike in Israeli jails in protest of harsh conditions and inhumane detention procedures. Within 24-hours of posting the image on his Facebook page Hitan, Omar`s design became a meme across the globe, prompting variations from Egypt and Syria to Ireland and the United States.

In this first-time exclusive and extended interview, Hafez Omar reflects on art, activism, and the plight of the Palestinians. From the role of dissident art to the social media, he discusses his posters and designs in support of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions and the growing networks of solidarity between youth across borders and boundaries. 

[Hafez Omar on Palestinian Prisoners, Protest and Art--conducted on 16 May 2012]