This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Marking 50th Homicide in Arab Community This YearAn Israeli was killed and two were wounded at a shooting in Deir Hanna Of the 59 citizens murdered since January 1 2025Get email notification for articles from Adi Hashmonai FollowMar 15 2025A man in his twenties was shot and killed on Friday in the town of Deir Hanna in northern Israel highlighting the sharp rise in homicides amid Israel's Arab communities 2021 (WAFA) – Hundreds of Palestinian protesters took part in a central rally yesterday in the town of Deir Hanna in the north of the Palestinian territories occupied since 1948 to express their resentment over Israeli police complicity in the ongoing crime wave and collaboration with outlaws The crowd rallied at the Land Day Square in Deir Hanna and marched towards a funeral house in the town held for a Palestinian young man who had been killed in a recent crime Another two Palestinians were also reportedly injured in the same incident Among the protesters were mayors of Arab communities, members of Arab factions and representatives of the civil society Palestinians across Israel have held protests to express their fury over police complicity and collaboration with outlaws who thus far this year have killed 88 people across Arab-majority communities Palestinians in today's Israel are those who stayed in their land following the creation of the occupying state in 1948 and their descendants They make up about 20 percent of the country's nine million people their rights are equal to those of Jewish citizens But in practice they suffer discrimination in employment Palestinians have long accused the Israeli police of turning a blind eye to gun violence among Arab Israelis and even complicity with criminal gangs Winner of Best Documentary at last year’s BFI London Film Festival Bye Bye Tiberias is a cinematic memoir delving into home-movie footage tracing lives of displacement and exile for four generations of women in a Palestinian family Lina Soualem’s mother took her to spend her summers with her family in Deir Hanna “as if to bathe me in her story.” These waters are at the heart of Soualem’s second documentary Bye Bye Tiberias Winner of the Grierson Award for Best Documentary at the 2023 London Film Festival it recollects the stories of four generations of women in her family celebrated actor Hiam Abbass (widely known in the West for her role as Marcia Roy in Succession) is central to her quest – having left her family home in Deir Hanna at the age of 23 to pursue her dream of acting Soualem leans into personal archives of her childhood Her mother and aunts bubble with warmth and laughter as they too recollect even playfully acting out decisive moments in their lives including mother Um Ali and grandmother Nemat – both formidable strong women whose lives were shaped by the 1948 Palestine war Soualem also spent years searching for images of women in the elusive archives of this time eventually sourcing a few black-and-white images of women leaving their homes with their babies in buggies and a few belongings packed into cloth parcels – images made all the more striking for being folded into a story of lineage visceral and delicate piece of resistance to erasure I’d love to hear more about the creative process of the film Collaboration feels an intrinsic part of the shared history that the film excavates – both a deeply personal and specific story and one that also echoes a wider reality of Palestinian legacy and diaspora The making of Bye Bye Tiberias began in 2018 and ended in 2023 shooting and editing were not linear in the sense that I would write It also took time to collect the film’s images: images from today I worked closely with my co-writer Nadine Naous in collaboration with my editor Gladys Joujou and supported by the Palestinian writer Karim Kattan in order to bring a sense of poetry and lyricism to the stories of the women in my family – while always keeping in mind the fact that they are part of a bigger story and that others might have felt like them and gone through the same experiences They both left their families and their countries when they were young to achieve something they wanted somewhere else so I think they know what this journey means so I don’t know what it means to leave your family and your traditional culture to live your dream I don’t know what it means to choose exile while also trying to keep a link to your family I don’t know what it means to raise children far from your own mother Working with them allowed me to understand something about my mother’s path that I had difficulty seeing I think it was important for me to have other people writing with me to bring a distance and to allow me to also trust the process At first it was hard for me to be present in the film with my voice; I didn’t think I wanted to have a voice Your feeling and embracing of exposure is mirrored in a way by your mother’s – a celebrated actor here stepping into a less familiar role I give my mother the role of the family guide She opens up revolving doors and stirs up intimate memories from the past She pulls out the multiple threads in the journeys of the women in the family that have left a mark on her while highlighting the fundamental links between the personal and the collective memory Her story interests me because she never did things totally against the traditions and her parents She tried to combine her desire to live life as the woman she wanted to be with the fact that she deeply respected and loved her parents It was important to me to show that complexity in the film as I sometimes feel that the trajectories of Arab women in films have been told in a binary way – as if it’s either the one totally controlled by the traditions or the one disrupting everything It’s crucial for me to try to give back complexity to those who are often deprived of it in terms of representation in cinema And you do so in such an intimate way thanks to a wealth of family archives – largely filmed by your father whose family is Algerian (and the subject of your first film) you were the subject of these family videos How did those family archives live with you over the years and what did you glean or see anew in working with them as a filmmaker my father always had a camcorder with which he and my mother compulsively filmed just about everything that happened when we visited my Algerian paternal family in the Auvergne or my Palestinian maternal family in Galilee A large number of visual and family archives lie dormant for decades It was my encounter with these rediscovered images that made me want to make films Coming across these VHS tapes from the 1990s was like meeting a character: they opened the door to another world some of which are now inaccessible or have disappeared these personal archives come like reminiscences of the past They provide a solid base to dig and explore the journeys of the women characters we encounter and the places they visit I wanted to extract the essence of these images to resurrect them through my subjective point-of-view of director since I am also a character in those archives I was very struck by some of the phrases you use to describe your relationship to Arabic as a conduit of culture but also of understanding Elle m’a transmis un bout de langue.” [My mother passed on to me half her language A fragment of her mother tongue.] In the in-between space you occupy – being attuned to some frequencies and only conscious but not fluent in others – the film attempts to piece together fragments: the histories you didn’t grow up understanding or knowing the pieces missing from the dominant narrative of Palestine I wanted to undertake the urgent yet daunting task of addressing the questions of colonial trauma exile and transmission through creative writing building imaginary territories and unpicking and documenting the indelible suffering of uprooted individuals Transmission is an essential matter for families coming from diasporic backgrounds because it’s more likely that the generation gap between the parents and children leads to a cultural gap especially when some members of the family are born far from the customs and cultural traditions of their parents’ or grandparents’ home country Reconnecting with your family history is not always a natural process You face obstacles depending on how much you know the native language or how much the family is attached to traditional values Exile has an emotional and cultural impact because the bonds with your native home are broken tend to have difficulties finding our place in the West because we sense there’s a collective memory that’s not part of our daily life something in our history that is incomplete as if we don’t fully know or understand ourselves I wanted to collect the memories of the women in my family in order to preserve the images of a world that is disappearing and to capture the stories that I carry within me I wanted to capture them before they vanish into oblivion I follow the same path as the women in my family – I continue what they had started It is through storytelling that we break free That is why I feel a constant urge to share these stories To capture them before they vanish into oblivion to preserve the images of a world rapidly disappearing Images that stand as proof of a denied existence Bye Bye Tiberias is in cinemas, including BFI Southbank and the UK’s lead organisation for film and the moving image it recollects the stories of four generations of women in her family.  even playfully acting out decisive moments in their lives.  of generations of Palestinian women.  visceral and delicate piece of resistance to erasure and one that also echoes a wider reality of Palestinian legacy and diaspora and that others might have felt like them and gone through the same experiences so I think they know what this journey means.  Working with them allowed me to understand something about my mother’s path that I had difficulty seeing I didn’t want to be too exposed Your feeling and embracing of exposure is mirrored in a way by your mother’s – a celebrated actor here stepping into a less familiar role while highlighting the fundamental links between the personal and the collective memory It’s crucial for me to try to give back complexity to those who are often deprived of it in terms of representation in cinema and what did you glean or see anew in working with them as a filmmaker the pieces missing from the dominant narrative of Palestine especially when some members of the family are born far from the customs and cultural traditions of their parents’ or grandparents’ home country.  as if we don’t fully know or understand ourselves.\u2028\u2028 Images that stand as proof of a denied existence Bye Bye Tiberias is in cinemas, including BFI Southbank Thousands march across Israel and the occupied territories to commemorate 41 years since security forces shot dead six Palestinians for protesting land expropriations Hundreds of Palestinians took part in marches across Israel on Wednesday and Thursday to mark “Land Day,” commemorating the six Palestinian citizens killed by Israeli forces in 1976 The events began on Wednesday in a torch-lit march in the northern village of Deir Hanna Thursday began with vigils for the six Palestinians who were shot dead in 1976 while protesting land expropriation while members of Knesset from the Joint List laid flowers at the memorial for the dead in Sakhnin On March 30, 1976, Palestinian citizens of Israel declared a general strike and set out to protest against a decision by Yitzhak Rabin’s government to expropriate nearly 5,000 acres of private Palestinian land in the Galilee IDF and police forces suppressed the demonstrations Land Day has become one of the symbols of the Palestinian struggle In the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev Desert, residents and activists built a memorial for Yacoub Abu al-Qi’an, who was shot dead by Israeli police in January explained why he chose to come to the village: “This place is the clearest symbol for the story of Land Day: in 1976 Arab citizens came out to struggle for their land and six of them were shot dead by the police and the army.” This is the memorial for Yacoub Abu Al-Qi’an who was shot dead here on the land of Umm al-Hiran — a small village that the government has decided to demolish,” Khenin said hundreds marched from the northern city of Saknin to Deir Hanna where the main rally was held to mark 41 years since the first Land Day Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh told the crowd: “Land Day is the most important day in the history of the Arab public’s struggle for equality in Israel.” “in the shadow of government’s wild incitement against us in the shadow of the home demolitions and the legislation whose only goal is to harm and incite against the Arab public — this day and this struggle are more important than ever We stand united against the bulldozers and against the incitement of the prime minister and his ministers.” A version of this article also appears in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here Activestills is a collective of Israeli united by a conviction that photography is a vehicle for political and social change We believe in the power of images to shape public attitudes and to raise awareness on issues that are generally absent from public discourse We view ourselves as part of the struggle against all forms of oppression and violations of the basic right to freedom Our images are frequently published by many leading human rights as well as by alternative and leading news media like Activestills on Facebook or visit our Flickr photostream Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7 Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives Can we count on your support +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening Arab-Israelis Protest 'Genocidal' Gaza WarIsraeli police allowed the march to take place on condition that no Palestinian flags will be flown claiming it could 'lead to public disorder.' Organizers decided to abide by the order and write slogans against the war in the colors of the Palestinian flag instead 2024Get email notification for articles from Jack Khoury FollowMar 30 2024Thousands of people took part in a march that ended with a rally in the town of Deir Hanna in the Galilee to commemorate the 48th anniversary of Land Day – an annual event commemorating protests that broke out on March 30 1976 against government land seizures in which six Arabs were killed by Israeli security forces and Israel’s olive-oil producers and small-scale olive-oil presses have opened their doors to the public for a peek behind the scenes Israeli olive oil may not flow as abundantly as that of some of its Mediterranean neighbors –Spain Greece and Italy are among the world’s top producers – but the yellow-green oil coming out of the Galilee and Golan Heights is top quality It’s not about one type of olive or another but about how to make the oil,” Dr a dentist in Deir Hanna and an olive oil expert 10 Israeli olive oil producers won gold certificates at the prestigious TerraOlivo international extra-virgin olive oil competition “We know how to make high-class olive oil,” Peleg Ovrutzki “We have some very good oils in Israel and we win international awards with them.” The olive oil industry in Israel dates back thousands of years Israel produces about 19,500 tons of olive oil annually olive division manager of Israel’s Plants Production and Marketing Board says Israelis consume about 2.5 kilograms of extra-virgin oil per person yearly Greece leads the world with more than 23 kg consumption of olive oil per person per year Israel’s growers and oil producers are constantly looking for better techniques to yield premium unrefined extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) “Virgin” refers to oil from the first pressing Ali says that the local olive-oil producers follow a traditional Arabic saying: “From the tree to the stone.” In other words the sooner the picked olives get to the mill the better the oil “We have our own specific taste in Israel,” Hilla Wenkert Greek or Italian oils that are smooth and fruity and quite aromatic ours are more pungent and a little more aggressive Ali says there are some 120 olive oil presses in the Galilee and Golan Heights During the Olive Branch Festival through November 19 participate in picking and bottling olives meet with different ethnic communities in the Galilee and take guided hikes through olive groves to learn the history of the trees and the area Reservations for specific workshops and tours must be made in advance Visitors can make their own marinated olives at Deir Hanna a community of 10,000 Christians and Muslims which is once again taking part in the annual festival Some of the olive trees surrounding this village are said to date back 2,000 years At Kfar Kedem  in the lower Galilee visitors can pick their own olives and press them using an ancient olive press visitors can watch the olive press in action as it uses 250-year-old millstones as well as modern techniques and machinery to produce tasty and aromatic oil If you’re in the area of the Druze village of Julis stop by the olive-oil press to watch the action as locals pull up with crates of freshly picked olives ready to be crushed “This hands-on experience of making your own olive oil lets you understand what you eat and how olive oil was made thousands of years ago,” Menachem Goldberg director of the recreated ancient Galilean village Kfar Kedem Visitors to the Kfar Kedem tourist center can also make goat’s milk cheeses Israel’s farmers know that olives and cheese go well together At the Ein Camonim farm in the upper Galilee between Rosh Pina and Karmiel there is a boutique dairy alongside the olive groves one of the first farms in Israel to make boutique cheeses As the Olive Branch Festival’s name suggests this event really extends an olive branch to all the communities and religions making up this country And everyone is welcome into one another’s homes The conflict between Israel and Palestinians — and other groups in the Middle East — goes back decades These stories provide context for current developments and the history that led up to them Palestinian citizens of Israel hold an anti-war protest in the town of Deir Hanna often for social media posts that appeared to question Israel's invasion of Gaza when hundreds of people marched through the Arab town of Deir Hanna Police had banned the Palestinian flag — black 25-year-old Haj Amir defiantly hoisted one over his shoulder "This will be the flag of our independent country at some point," he said The march was for an annual event called Land Day, centered in the Galilee but marked more broadly every March 30, to commemorate Palestinian opposition to Israeli expropriation of Arab land it was also about opposing the fighting in Gaza that has now lasted six months without any threats" of retribution for speaking out she said it was her first chance to raise her voice against the war Palestinians make up 20% of Israel's population, but have long felt treated like second-class citizens due to lack of job opportunities disproportionate poverty and under-investment in Arab communities but expressing solidarity with Palestinians there can be perilous The Deir Hanna march was held as part of an annual event commemorating a 1976 protest against Israeli government plans to control land owned by Arabs in the northern Galilee area Israeli police shot and killed six Palestinians in the 1976 protest the march was also about opposing the fighting in Gaza that has now lasted six months has been under disciplinary review for months after posting a poem on social media She says another sister switched her online profile to a black image but a work colleague messaged her that it was inappropriate and she should change it "I think [Jewish Israelis] don't feel safe," Madi says because "they think only war and violence will protect them and their children." one marcher said she was disappointed turnout wasn't bigger and said she had friends who were too scared to come out Israel waged an unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression and assembly — for everyone While Israelis have protested weekly to demand the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bring home hostages — or more recently to call for early elections — permits for anti-war protests have been harder to come by taking cases all the way to Israel's Supreme Court and have won permits for a few recent anti-war demonstrations "It's shifting, but it's still a very grim picture from where I'm standing," says Noa Sattath, executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. She says Palestinian rallies are often organized jointly with Jewish activists "We know that Arab citizens object to the war but very few of them are protesting," she says Palestinian citizens of Israel march in Deir Hanna Israel waged an unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression and assembly Some protest permits for Palestinian citizens have also had "very limited and strict conditions," says Hassan Jabareen general director of the human rights organization Adalah instead of being allowed to hold a protest in the center of one Arab town organizers were confined to an out-of-the-way soccer field But the group decided to accept the restriction worried that contesting it might risk denial altogether In March, a Palestinian professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem was suspended after suggesting that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and expressing doubts over the extent of alleged sexual assaults by Hamas during its Oct saying she had "clarified" some of the remarks then they're less likely to do it next time," says Sattath "We're definitely going to witness a new era after this war," says Shahd Bishara Tensions over an earlier conflict with Hamas in 2021 led to street violence between Israeli Jews and Arabs "I was scared that I would be attacked somehow," she says But last fall was such a stressful time that one of her friends created a podcast as a way for people to speak out "It was called 'We will not be silent,'" she says But these days she is comfortable not only speaking Arabic in public but also speaking out against the war in Gaza That confidence has come partly from her work with Standing Together, a group of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel They set up a hotline and financial aid for Palestinian citizens who faced harassment and have held "solidarity" meetings to find common ground between Jews and Arabs the group has organized several anti-war rallies "To show that we demand a cease-fire agreement which is the only way that will bring the Israeli hostages back home," Bishara says to prevent the humanitarian crisis in Gaza." "The arming is to target Arabs at the end of the day," Bishara says "So I think it's normal to be afraid in such a situation Palestinian citizens of Israel march in Deir Hanna for Land Day on March 30 Some protest permits for Palestinian citizens of Israel have had "very limited and strict conditions," says Hassan Jabareen Bishara says it's painful to see the destruction in Gaza and the more than 33,000 Palestinians killed But she says Israeli media does not show that and she believes Jewish Israelis "don't see what the international society sees in different [media] platforms." it feels like the relationship between Israel's Jewish and Palestinian citizens at this moment is at a critical juncture "I'm not sure to which direction it's going to change," she says "but we're definitely going to witness a new era after this war." She intends to keep raising her voice to try and shape that era away from more violence You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed Ottoman ruins and a magnificent view of Acre and the Sea of Galilee 2014 As we walk in the ancient olive grove Mazen Ali tells me about the dove that Noah sent from the ark He describes how the dove chose an olive branch from a tree in Deir Hanna to show Noah that the flood was over Amman might be trying to get Arab citizens who usually boycott Israeli elections to vote on November 1 a major non-NATO ally of the United States appears to be taking steps to improve its relations with some of the region’s radical Islamists It is not clear whether the recent moves are being carried out for temporary tactical reasons or if Amman has made a strategic change in its policy Jordan’s policy has been largely based on a centralist approach of keeping its bridges open with all elements told The Media Line that Amman has taken a middle-of-the-road position regarding the Muslim Brotherhood “Jordan has not followed the Egyptians and the British in officially declaring them a terror organization nor has the kingdom allowed them to be integrated into the political system the way the Kingdom of Morocco has done,” he said But while Amman has had a “soft yet distant” relationship with its domestic Islamists it has taken a hard-line position regarding Jordanians who were publicly supportive of the Palestinian Hamas movement which began as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood during the First Intifada in December 1987 then chairman of the Hamas political bureau and three other Jordanian citizens who were publicly supporting Hamas were deported in 1999 Mashaal has been allowed to return for one- or two-day visits for family reasons including attending the funerals of his parents this time reportedly so he can visit his parents’ graves Mashaal’s visit coincided with overtures that Amman appears to be making to Sheikh Raed Salah the leader of the hard-line Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel Jordanian journalist Bassam Badarin wrote a report in the London-based pan-Arab Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper saying that Jordanian officials asked him what would be the best way to engage with Salah Badarin said that the two moves coupled together reflected a gradual warming up by the powers that be in Jordan to the hard-line Islamists in Palestine and Israel prominent Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood figure Zaki Bani Rushaid told The Media Line he was doubtful that Jordanian authorities had made any major change in their thinking More time was needed to ascertain if this was a strategic decision or a tactical one but we need some more time to be sure,” he added The overtures to Salah might be more related to the upcoming election in Israel “The Israeli election might be the reason and Jordan doesn’t want [Binyamin] Netanyahu to return to power and one of the ways to achieve this is to get the Islamists who normally boycott the elections to back away from the boycott calls,” Bani Rushaid said The Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel after the movement decided to participate in the Israeli election Israel banned the Northern Branch in November 2015 due to its ties with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood scoffed at the idea of Amman being able to change the position of supporters of Salah “The split within the Islamic Movement in Israel happened specifically because of the idea of participating in the Knesset elections,” he noted Abu Nassar said that those who think that Salah can be invited to Jordan and everything will be fixed clearly do not understand the political map among Islamists in Israel “Raed Salah is not even allowed to exit Israel by order of the Israeli minister of interior Jordan’s king is not going to make Raed Salah a hero,” he explained Regardless of whether Salah will be photographed with the king or whether the Jordanians will be able to convince him to lower the boycott rhetoric it is clear that Amman appears to be concerned about the November 1 election in Israel and to have realized that forfeiting the Hamas file to Egypt and Qatar was perhaps a mistake Abu Hanieh told The Media Line that the new pragmatism in the Gulf countries appears to have had its effects on Hamas and therefore Jordan might be willing to revisit its previous decision to abandon communications with the Hamas movement Abu Hanieh also believes that if there is a breakthrough in the indirect US-Iran talks on a new nuclear agreement it will also have a considerable influence on the direction Jordan and others have toward the Islamist movements “A deal between the US and Iran would allow Hamas to soften its position and this could produce a regional political breakthrough,” he said He insists that Tehran does not have a deep-seated ideological problem with Israel Iran’s difference with Israel is not ideological but geopolitical,” Abu Hanieh argued “The pragmatism that is being seen in the Gulf countries has its effects on the Islamic Republic of Iran as well,” he said Bye Bye Tiberias, a documentary following four generations of Palestinian women in filmmaker Lina Soualem’s maternal family, opens with a 1992 home video. A camera shakily captures an azure view of the Sea of Galilee, taken from the vantage point of a moving car overlooking the water. The footage cuts to a clip of a young Soualem floating with her mother, the Palestinian actor Hiam Abbass my mother took me swimming in this lake,” Soualem narrates Bye Bye Tiberias is Soualem’s second directorial effort devoted to investigating parts of her autobiography explored the journey of immigration undertaken by her paternal grandparents who left Algeria for the French town of Thiers more than 60 years ago considering multiple departures at once — her great-grandmother and grandmother were forced out of the city of Tiberias along with the rest of its Arab residents in the aftermath of the 1948 Nakba The film’s focus is Soualem’s mother Abbass who began her acting career in East Jerusalem before settling in France in the late 1980s Abbass’s subsequent acting credits include roles in Munich (2005) In 2023 she received an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Marcia Roy in HBO’s Succession is a place of isolation; a Palestinian village consisting of exiles from nearby Tiberias locked within the confines of the Israeli state The neighbouring Arab countries that encircle the Lower Galilee — Syria Lebanon — form part of a forbidden world from which Abbass her siblings and the residents of the village have been cleaved and surrounded by countries that they couldn’t access that shared a common history,” Soualem says This disconnection proves suffocating for a young Abbass Herein lies one of Soualem’s central concerns: investigating her mother’s decision to leave Deir Hanna to become an actor “Don’t open the gate to past sorrows,” is the oft-repeated line by the women in Soualem’s family Lina?” Abbass asks Soualem at one point in the film-making process Delving into parts of her mother’s personal history required Soualem to find a way to ask difficult questions She explores Abbass’s decision to pursue a career that was unconventional in her traditional family while examining the trauma of displacement that Abbass inherited from her own mother and grandmother “It was hard for my mother to share some of her intimate struggles that she’d put behind,” says Soualem “She’s used to expressing her emotions through other characters.” What ensues is a delicate exchange between mother and daughter made easier by moments in which Soualem has Abbass wear the familiar hat of an actor the story of her admission to art school in Haifa the time when she asked her father for permission to marry her first husband an Englishman whom she met while acting in the Palestinian El-Hakawati theatre troupe in East Jerusalem.  She had to find what made her at ease to talk about some of her choices,” Soualem adds “This is when I decided to ask her to re-enact some moments of her younger self so that she could also enjoy the process.” Long-buried memories are tenderly revealed as a result allowed her mother to tell her story on her own terms both mother and daughter attempt to reconstruct the puzzle of their family’s story through physical mementos While home videos shot by Soualem’s father in the early 1990s punctuate the film family photographs help to gather dispersed memories — the pair create a collage on a wall in Abbass’s Paris apartment consisting of photos taken across several generations: Um Ali “Because it wasn’t easy for her to face the camera it was also a way for me to have her communicate and transmit without being direct,” Soualem says where Soualem asked her aunts to choose photographs of Tiberias to paste on a wall in their family home One of the final images in the film shows Abbass lingering on a bridge overlooking the Sea of Galilee their gaze momentarily resting on Abbass before a look of confusion flashes on their faces Abbass reminds Soualem that this was where she had brought her as a child to swim.  In an earlier voiceover as she drives past the lake — replicating the images from the home video with which she opened the documentary — Soualem worries about the ephemeral nature of her surroundings speaking to the precarious nature of simply existing as a Palestinian: “I know the fear that sleeps within us What if the remains of this place were to disappear?” Bye Bye Tiberias goes some way to lend her story a degree of permanence when stories such as that of her family have been erased from public narratives “It’s amazing to see how the memories of my family who are people from a rural background — marginalised in stories of colonisation and displacement — can now exist and are immortalised in the public space,” Soualem says “I feel like I give back to my family their place in history.” Hyphen is the leading media platform on Muslim life in the UK and Europe Sign up to our newsletter to receive our top stories straight to your inbox every week This form may not be visible due to adblockers © 2025 Hyphen® / Link Media Corporation Ltd said Wednesday that its firefighters had extinguished 20 forest fires in Latakia and Tartus provinces in northern Syria The organization said the flames were put out on the Deir Hanna road in the Qardaha countryside of Latakia province that lasted for nearly seven hours The firefighting teams also managed to extinguish all forest fires that erupted in the countryside of Latakia and Tartus The cause of these fires was not yet clear Revisiting Bye Bye Tiberias has been immensely difficult. In the months between the 2023 Venice Film Festival premiere of Lina Soualem’s documentary about her Palestinian roots, and its imminent UK release this month the region has been transformed by unspeakable brutality.  The film sees Soualem journey with her mother now officially deemed to be part of Israel Abbass has lived mainly in Paris since she left Deir Hanna starring and consulting in Steven Spielberg and Denis Villeneuve films but is best known for her roles in television playing Logan Roy’s formidable wife Marcia in Succession and the titular character’s mother in Ramy Soualem’s documentary gives voice to an intergenerational trauma that no moves to Paris or success on stage and screen can break free from. I am no movie star, but have found myself living a comfortable existence in London, having last April fled the war in Sudan that began on the final days of 2023’s Ramadan but I find myself constantly overwhelmed by the scars of what we went through to get to safety the survivor’s guilt when thinking of those left behind and the thought that I may never be able to return home.  Watching Bye Bye Tiberias during the onslaught and displacement of so many young souls in Palestine and Sudan it feels like a portrait of future generations born of those who escaped these conflicts and grow up with parents in exile I’m contemplating the difficult conversations I will one day have to have with my own young children about what has happened to us.  The “lucky” ones who escape with their lives and build futures face living in a world that sees them untethered from their homeland That profound grief and resentment is cruelly inherited by their children My son frequently asks about when we will be able to go back home He told me that was the wish he made when he recently blew out the candles on his birthday cake.  and cannot help thinking that I would sacrifice everything if it just meant they could walk through the doors of their house in Khartoum and take in the incredible view of the Blue Nile that curves along the edge of their garden children have an innate desire to understand their parents and to try to heal their wounds The director’s approach may be unorthodox — asking her mother to relive painful memories on camera — but it’s effective.  In one scene Abbass is asked to perform the moment when she first told her father of her plans to marry a European and move to France to become an actor She begs her director daughter to stop making her revisit such painful memories with a tearful Both Soualem and her mother leave the film seeming to better understand the impact of these traumatic events even if it’s a complicated and painful one When Abbass is able to travel to a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria to finally meet an aunt the actor has been afforded a freedom of movement that eluded her extended family but the two nearly collide in their rush to embrace one another and physically reassemble their family Bye Bye Tiberias is a deeply personal piece — as is inevitable in a film in which a daughter directs her mother There is care and affection in Abbass each time she looks down her daughter’s lens to answer her questions sincerely trying to explain herself even when it’s agonising to recall memories of their displacement Though it is a dark subject, it is ultimately a hopeful one. It’s easy to look at what is happening in the news and despair, to not believe in a future beyond the present depravity occurring across the globe. But Bye Bye Tiberias proves to be a powerful testimony to the human spirit of the Palestinians, Sudanese and all displaced people who Bye Bye Tiberias is screening in UK cinemas from 28 June Bye Bye Tiberias opens with grainy VHS footage of a woman and her child swimming in the waters of Lake Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee The Franco-Palestinian-Algerian director Lina Soualem narrates: “As a child my mother took me swimming in this lake as if to bathe me in her story.” This cinematic memoir attempts to tell that story by gathering and piecing together the memories of her family, dispersed by the Israeli occupation The story is bookended by the lake, where they lived before the Nakba in 1948 when 700,000 Palestinians were displaced by Israel Hiam Abbass (widely known in the West for her role as Marcia Roy in Succession) revisits the lake with her mother, Nemet They find its shores ringed in barriers and lined with shops emblazoned with neon shop signs in Hebrew They try to reflect in silence but are interrupted by blaring pop music and the approach of Israeli soldiers who left the village of Deir Hanna at the age of 23 to pursue an acting career in France as she revisits her home to care for the ailing Nemet Soualem charts the history of Palestinian displacement through the stories of four generations of women in her family who fled Tiberias in 1948 with her husband and eight children; her great-aunt who found refuge in Syria following exile; and her mother Bye Bye Tiberias attempts to weave their stories together through a patchwork of 90s home videos poetry and present-day interviews with Abbass and her sisters In a recurring motif throughout the film, Soualem and her mother arrange photographs on the wall of her grandmother’s flat forming a patchy map of their family history Camcorder footage from Soualem’s annual childhood visits to Deir Hanna often captures the four women together but continually switches focus from one woman to another - from the young Soualem engrossed in play to Um Ali meditatively plaiting her white hair photographs and interviews with her daughter She frequently averts her gaze from the camera her eyes flickering into the middle distance.  Video footage of her second wedding shows Abbass staring off into space amid the beaming guests Abbass’ yearning to escape her home - expressed in the poetry she wrote by night as a teenager which she recites to the camera - is accompanied by a powerful desire to return to it Soualem introduced alternative ways of depicting the past by getting Abbass to re-enact conversations with her father her sister and a former colleague at the Palestinian National Theatre As Soualem urges her mother to turn towards the camera The paradox is movingly encapsulated in her description of a reunion with her aunt Abbass’ French passport allowed her to cross the border that split the family in 1948, barring Hosnieh from returning Abbass describes how they were drawn together “like magnets” In one scene, she stands on the balcony, turns on the spot and points towards the sea, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan “And here we are in the middle,” she concludes Her sense of “in-betweenness” mirrors the condition of Palestine itself It is the last time we see her before her death While the Israeli occupation does not feature prominently in the film’s footage The roar of a jet flying overhead or khaki-clad soldiers marching past Abbass on the shores of Lake Tiberias interrupts their efforts to preserve the material trace of their memories Its violence is felt in the fractured stories of four generations of women which Soualem lovingly tries to piece back together Soualem notes that even her knowledge of Arabic is a “fragment” of her mother’s language The film is an attempt to counteract that violence and to counteract Palestinian erasure by preserving and transmitting memory.  “What if the remains of this place were to disappear?” Soualem speculates as the film closes As we witness the erasure of Gaza where over 40,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces and more than half of its buildings razed to the ground this question has become even more pertinent and the act of remembering a more urgent form of resistance The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye Copyright © 2014 - 2025. Middle East Eye Only England and Wales jurisdiction apply in all legal matters Middle East Eye          ISSN 2634-2456                      KQED Live EventsPRX Podcast Garage EventsEvents Around the Bay AreaMember Benefits with KQED LiveVideos from KQED LiveWatch recordings of recent KQED Live events FeaturedThat's My WordAn ongoing exploration of Bay Area hip-hop history See Senior Director of TV Programming Meredith Speight’s recommendations from this month’s KQED 9 Watch recordings of recent KQED Live events Support KQED by using your donor-advised fund to make a charitable gift in a still from 'Bye Bye Tiberias.' (rida Marzouk/Beall Productions)Exile is a state of mind as much as a fact of geography It’s no less true if the leave-taking is by choice rather than by force Lina Soualem’s compelling documentary seeks to convey her mother’s experience of living her entire adult life a continent away from her birthplace and family March 10 at the Roxie) traverses four generations to tell a universal story of defying parental expectations is the renowned Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass (who will appear in conversation with Israeli-Palestinian actress Clara Khoury after the Saturday show) Best known these days as Marcia Roy in HBO’s Succession the France-based Abbass became an international star with the politically charged Middle Eastern dramas Paradise Now and Lemon Tree and the Hollywood epics Munich and Blade Runner 2049 really starts a dozen years before she was born when her parents fled their home in Tiberias for the Lebanon border during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 One of their daughters had already crossed into Syria couldn’t bring himself to leave Palestine He and Abbass’s mother went back to the Galilee region in what was now (and what remains) northern Israel Hiam Abbass and most of her other siblings were born in Deir Hanna and the family appears to have gone on to live relatively stable after she made a surreptitious and risky trip from Syria.) But the trauma of being uprooted from their original home led to the father’s premature demise he would stand by the road asking passers-by if they’d seen his cows The events of 1948 are clearly woven throughout both the family’s narrative and the film’s Bye Bye Tiberias jumps back and forth in time beginning with home movies that Hiam Abbass shot in 1992 when she returned to Deir Hanna to present her toddler These opening scenes establish and explain the presence of Lina and as her mother’s interviewer in contemporary footage shot in 2018 They also plant the expectation that Bye Bye Tiberias will be a personal excavation of family and political history for Lina The filmmaker seems content to let Mom hold the emotional center a direct link to the exile evoked through black-and-white archival footage of the Nakba (which translates to “Catastrophe,” as Palestinians describe their eviction and displacement during and after the 1948 war) the fifth of eight daughters (and 10 children overall) Abbass wrote poetry throughout her adolescence and studied photography in college before moving to Jerusalem to pursue acting — in secret “Everything suffocated me,” she recalls “Even the people I loved suffocated me.” Most modern viewers will applaud Abbass’s artistic ambitions and see her need to go and grow beyond her traditional family as not just natural but admirable even if she extricated herself from her family and country through a time-honored method: marriage She wasn’t being strategic or calculating though the relationship had the desired result.) Abbass’s decision to pursue an acting career abroad was undoubtedly the right one — “I was the child who had to escape,” she says — but it was accompanied by a raft of emotions Palestine’s entry for the International Feature Film Oscar Bye Bye Tiberias lets us imagine how it felt to be “the one who left” when Abbass came home for visits and gives just a fleeting hint of any jealousy and resentment her sisters obliquely expressed FaceTime may be the next best thing to being there “I think we know how to become mothers,” Hiam tells Lina “But we never know how to separate from a mother.” Some moviegoers may be inclined to approach Bye Bye Tiberias through a political lens given the terrible present moment of war But the interactions between Hiam and Um Ali ground us in a primary not for the road not taken but for the price of being true to one’s soul (artistic or otherwise) precipitated by neither political events nor military force uninterested in confrontational confessions or celebrity travelogue has crafted an open-ended and often-moving portrait of the family ties that bind and the cost of chasing one’s dreams ‘Bye Bye Tiberias’ runs March 8–10 at the Roxie Theatre (3117 16th St.) in San Francisco. Tickets and more info here.  This documentary is based on four generations of a Palestinian family and the traumas (and happiness) they have faced in their troubled homeland In ‘early modern’ times it had a mixed population of Arabic and Jewish people In 1948 the British evacuated the Arab population The film features early footage is in black and white with more recent events in colour and focusses on the family of the Director Lina Soualem Lina features in the film herself along with her mother Hiam Abbass who left her family and homeland to become an actress in Paris Hiam has a lifetime of family memories in photos Her grandmother Um Ali was displaced from Tiberias to the village of Deir Hanna she had just her sewing machine to make money to raise her large family Hiam’s mother Nemat also features in the film the film ends in celebration with Hiam and Lina returning to their homeland The film premiered in Venice on 3rd September in 2023 It is a sobering thought that the current dreadful conflict between Palestine and Israel started on 7th October 2023 I found this movie to be heartbreaking and beautiful It is a documentary about a middle aged woman returning home with her daughter to the land of her youth From the very beginning the words had a poetic sensibility where the narrator’s mother brought her “as if to bathe me in her story” is presented with a warm scene of mother and young daughter playing in its restorative waters These strong but gentle characters are steadfast in their values Their plight follows the history of the area since 1948 Director Lina Soualem eloquently demonstrates the enduring love that is both quite everyday We see scenes of children at play and in warm and fun filled interactions; they are a joyous feature of this movie The narrative explores both the family’s celebrations while also looking at the fractions arising from life choices made by Hiam The scenes relating to their mother’s married life the reminiscences of Hiam’s siblings about their past and their interactions in trying to celebrate their reunion This film was shot during COVID and was presented as an examination of the mother daughter relationship While it succeeds as a tender reflection on this familial bond this film’s true strength is coming to this subject in these violent and distressing times this beautiful memoir speaks with greater eloquence than any political manifesto about the tragedy and futility of the current conflict Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF) is Ireland’s premier film event dedicated to presenting the best in contemporary and classic world cinema It brings the world to Ireland and showcases Ireland to the world With a rich history spanning several decades DIFF showcases a diverse selection of films and fosters a vibrant film culture in Dublin it has screened more than 1,600 international films from over 52 countries The Festival has hosted over 600 high profile guests In 2014 she graduated with a First from NUIG’s MA Writing programme Gemma’s play Spoiling Sunset was staged in Galway as part of the Jerome Hynes One Act Play series in 2014 Gemma was one of eight playwrights selected for AboutFACE’s 2021 Transatlantic Tales and is presently developing a play with the Axis Theatre and with the support of the Arts Council She has been commissioned to submit a play by Voyeur Theatre to potentially be performed in Summer 2023 as part of the local arts festival Gemma was the writer and co-producer of the five-part comedy Rental Boys for RTÉ’s Storyland direct and produce shorts which screened at festivals around the world She was commissioned to direct the short film she’s the assistant editor for Film Ireland and she contributes reviews to RTE Radio One’s Arena on occasion Pingback: Bye Bye Tiberias by Lina Soualem Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" We take a look at some of the Irish films coming to screens in 2025 release dates and platforms and add reviews and interviews as they come in Dev Murray takes a fresh slice out of Vingt Dieux’s tender portrait of rural youth our contributors look back at some of their favourite films of the year © Film Ireland Mediaversity: TV and Film Reviews Promoting Gender Title: Bye Bye Tiberias (2023)Director: Lina Soualem 👩🏽🇫🇷Producer: Jean-Marie Nizan 👨🏼🇫🇷 Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸 Last night, Bye Bye Tiberias enjoyed its North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival. The heartfelt documentary by Palestinian-Algerian French filmmaker Lina Soualem charts the tumultuous journey of her mother, actor Hiam Abbass (Succession, Ramy) who left the Palestinian village she grew up in to pursue a more expansive life But it wasn’t just Deir Hanna that she escaped—she also left behind her mother Fast-forward 30 years: Soualem and her mother return to mourn Abbass’ recently deceased mother Widescreen present-day footage contrasts beautifully with the nostalgic home videos from 1992 shot in standard 4:3 ratio by Soualem’s father overlaid with Soualem’s narration of how her mother grew up creates a visual diary that feels deeply personal that sense of fierce ownership makes the overall documentary feel hesitant in scope Viewers are enclosed in scenes of raking through belongings—old letters and empty spaces in innocuous rooms that Soualem and her family lavish with anecdotes These rituals are easy to connect with; who hasn’t looked at old photographs and felt a magnetic sense of curiosity and longing But this recounting of the past can quickly turn mundane akin to an exciting dream that withers by the time it’s being passed on to bored listeners This isn’t to say that Soualem and her matrilineal ancestors have boring stories Quite the opposite; their lives weave into a broader narrative of 20th and 21st century Israeli military aggression Snippets of Bye Bye Tiberias get close to creating magic when family lore overlays with historical events such as a tearful reunion in Syria between Abbass and her estranged aunt who was tragically separated from her family during Operation Hiram in 1948 and forced to start a new life on her own too insular to properly connect with the bigger picture that would have made this film resonate more fully Gender: 5/5Does it pass the Bechdel Test Created by a female filmmaker about the women in her family Bye Bye Tiberias makes no bones about its quiet celebration and gratitude for womens’ strength it follows four generations of women and examines the love and heartbreak that exists between mothers primarily discussed during anecdotes and oral histories It’s a powerful tactic that leaves plenty of negative space for women to fill—an effective quelling of the male voice and male image which all too often eclipse those of women on screen Soualem’s documentary puts a human lens on what can be soulless and cold headlines about the Israel-Palestine conflict we don’t just read a dry timeline of a war—we see what it means to the families and children on the ground who fled and lost loved ones in the chaos that erupted when the Israel Defense Forces invaded Deir Hanna near Lake Tiberias Some of the film’s most powerful moments take place enmeshed in this brutal history When Abbass describes her search for her aunt in Syria the story is fantastically moving—two women running towards each other after decades spent forced apart Soualem balances these war-torn stories of pain and grief with levity through footage of raucous weddings and captured moments of cheeky humor—daughters gleefully teasing a mother about how much sex she must have had in order to bear ten children The full picture Soualem paints is one that puts faces and names to wider international conflicts that forget just who’s being harmed by violent acts of war Though it shares a perspective that’s sorely underrepresented in film Bye Bye Tiberias stands too close to its subjects there’s little space for viewers to invest themselves in Soualem’s story Thousands of Palestinians marched through Deir Hanna where Israel violently cracked down on protests on March 30 Palestinians on Saturday were joined by people across the globe in marking Land Day the 48th anniversary of Israel’s killing of six unarmed protesters who rose up against the Israeli government’s confiscation and occupation of Palestinian land Thousands of Palestinian people marched through Deir Hanna, one of the Israeli towns where authorities violently cracked down on nonviolent protesters on March 30, 1976, as they honored Raja Abu Raya More than 100 people were also injured by Israeli authorities during the protest in 1976, which was organized in opposition to Israel’s confiscation of nearly 5,000 acres of land that belonged to Palestinian citizens of Israel in the northern Galilee region The Good Shepherd Collective, an anti-Zionist human rights group based in the West Bank, said that with Israel bombarding Gaza and conducting raids almost daily in the West Bank as officials seize more land Land Day becomes “more relevant” every year Today is Yom il-Ard, Land Day, in Palestine. Every year it is more relevant.On Land Day we remember March 30, 1976, when unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were attacked and brutalized by Israeli forces during an organized protest, rejecting the state's theft of land. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/aoroX4yyc2 “No Palestinian needs to be reminded of the centrality of the land in the struggle for justice and liberation. Land Day is more a remembrance of one massacre among hundreds over more than one hundred years of Zionist violence,” said Good Shepherd Collective we must continue to speak out and speak of the context of settler-colonialism’s baked-in logic of elimination.” Last week, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced Israel was seizing nearly 2,000 acres of land in the occupied West Bank which would allow the country to build more illegal settlements The country’s settlement-planning authority said earlier this month it had approved the construction of 3,500 new housing units in the territory As the Middle East Eye reported Israeli forces conducted overnight raids across the West Bank ahead of Land Day killing a 13-year-old boy named Nabil Abu Abed near Jenin The U.S.-based Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) marked Land Day as organizers with the group held solidarity marches and rallies in cities including Boston; Portland, Maine; and Providence, Rhode Island. Other groups organized a march scheduled for Saturday evening in New York City Land Day falls during the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians. With immense grief and rage at the horrors the Israeli military is committing in Gaza right now, we recognize Palestinians’ deep roots in their land as we support the struggle for Palestinian freedom. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Il6cY6Bwfb “We mourn the thousands whom the Israeli military murdered or permanently injured over the years. We honor those who rose up in 1976 and all who have risen up to fight for justice in Palestine,” said JVP Marches also took place in Cardiff, Wales; London; Madrid; and Helsingborg, Sweden with protesters reiterating the demand for an immediate Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos says Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.The 86-year-old spoke during a Palestine solidarity rally in London, marking Land Day and demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/dEUnffmDqU “I’ll keep [marching] as long as the bombing and the apartheid and the injustice is going on,” Stephen Kapos we are witnessing a terrifying array of anti-democratic tactics to silence political opposition increase surveillance and expand authoritarian reach Truthout is appealing for your support as Trump and his sycophants crack down on political speech Nonprofits like Truthout could be caught in Trump’s crosshairs as he attacks dissenting groups with bad faith lawsuits and targeted harassment of journalists these attacks come at a time when independent journalism is most needed The right-wing corporate takeover of media has left reliable outlets few and far between with even fewer providing their work at no cost to the reader Who will be there to hold the fascists to account We ask for your support as we doggedly pursue justice through our reporting Truthout is funded overwhelmingly by readers like you Please make a tax-deductible one-time or monthly donation today Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams As Trump and his sycophants work to silence political dissent independent media is a key part of the resistance Support our work by making a one-time or monthly donation to Truthout today these ancient trees are evocative and beautiful 2013It is said that when the Messiah comes — we should only live to see it — he will be anointed with olive oil that’s the meaning of the Hebrew word mashiach - messiah — “anointed one.” It is also said that he will arrive from the Mount of Olives with no resolution in sight to the historic injustices inflicted upon them Palestinians in Israel and elsewhere use this day to remember and redouble their efforts for emancipation Palestinians around the world have commemorated Land Day Though it may sound like an environmental celebration Land Day marks a bloody day in Israel when security forces gunned down six Palestinians as they protested Israeli expropriation of Arab-owned land in the country’s north to build Jewish-only settlements The Land Day victims were not Palestinians from the occupied territory but citizens of the state a group that now numbers over 1.6 million people or more than 20.5 percent of the population They are inferior citizens in a state that defines itself as Jewish and democratic in response to Israel’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of acres of Palestinian land for “security and settlement purposes,” a general strike and marches were organized in Palestinian towns within Israel in a last-ditch attempt to block the planned protests the government imposed a curfew on the Palestinian villages of Sakhnin The curfew failed; citizens took to the streets Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza as well as those in the refugee communities across the Middle East In the ensuing confrontations with the Israeli army and police six Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed the conflict is not limited to Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip but is ever-present in the country’s treatment of its own Palestinian Arab citizens written by senior Interior Ministry official Yisrael Koenig which became known as the Koenig Memorandum offered recommendations intended to “ensure the [country’s] long-term Jewish national interests.” These included “the possibility of diluting existing Arab population concentrations.” Israel has been attempting to “dilute” its Palestinian population − both Muslims and Christians − ever since and are often more insidious than physical violence Legislation aimed at ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Israel is part of public discourse Israeli ministers do not shy away from promoting “population transfers” of Palestinian citizens − code for forced displacement Israel’s adamant demand that the Palestinians recognize it as a “Jewish state” leaves them in a situation of having to inherently negate their own existence and accept the situation of inferiority in their own land Recent efforts in the Knesset to link loyalty to citizenship threaten to target organizations and individuals who express dissent and even the revocation of citizenship Budgets for health and education allocated by the Israeli government to the Arab sector are a fraction of those allocated to Jewish locales Although hundreds of new Jewish towns and settlements have been approved and built since Israel’s creation the state continues to prevent Arab towns and villages from expanding suffocating their inhabitants and forcing new generations to leave in search of homes Palestinians living in Israel are heavily discriminated against in employment and wages in realizing its oft-cried role as “the only democracy in the Middle East” with such discriminatory policies and a culture of antagonism and neglect vis-a-vis a fifth of its citizens The original Land Day marked a pivotal point in terms of how Palestinians in Israel − living victims of Israel’s violent establishment − viewed their relations with the state The names of the six victims of Land Day are written on the front of a monument in the cemetery of Sakhnin accompanied by the words: “They sacrificed themselves for us to live … thus they are alive − The martyrs of the day of defending the land 30 March 1976.” On the back of the monument are the names of the two sculptors who created it: one Arab Maybe it is this joint recognition of the tragedy of Palestinians that is required in Israel to get us beyond the chasm of denial as second-generation Palestinians born and raised outside Palestine who have decided to return to live in this troubled land we view Land Day as an ongoing wake-up call to Israeli Jews and Jewry worldwide to understand that land freedom and equality are an inseparable package − the only one that can deliver a lasting peace to all involved Sam Bahour is a Palestinian business consultant from the Palestinian city of El Bireh. He blogs at www.epalestine.com. Fida Jiryis is a Palestinian writer from the Arab village of Fassuta in the Galilee. Her website is www.fidajiryis.net Sam and Fida were both born in the Diaspora and relocated to their family’s hometowns in Palestine and Israel Representational photo posted on X by @AjyalFilm Doha: From the village of Deir Hanna in Galilee to Hollywood acclaimed Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass has carried her heritage across continents and cultures She recently appeared in her daughter Lina Soualem's documentary Bye Bye Tiberias a project supported by Doha Film Institute returns to the village she left 30 years ago to become an actor with her daughter Lina Soualem behind the camera wife of Brian Cox’s media potentate Logan Roy in Jesse Armstrong’s hit HBO TV drama Succession Now her own personal story emerges – partly – in this heartfelt cine-memoir directed by her daughter Lina Soualem This isn’t directly a story about what Palestinians call the Nakba or “catastrophe”: as a young woman, Abbass left her home village of Deir Hanna near Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee’s western shore But now Soualem goes back there with Abbass to reconnect with her grandmother Nemat who has memories of Palestine before 1948 and the establishment of the state of Israel and the film is an emotional multi-generational portrait Abbass herself appears at first to have mixed feelings about this return and is almost reticent on the subject; it was and where she found the patriarchal control of her destiny to be oppressive Abbass’s Wikipedia page actually lists one spouse (divorced): the French actor Zinedine Soualem But Bye Bye Tiberias talks about another man in her life; an Englishman called Michael who was passionately in love with Abbass long before and who it seems offered to convert to Islam if that was what it took to get married to her and you leave the film with the (actually rather intriguing) sensation that not everything has been told Another type of documentary might have done more investigating on the subject of Michael or even made his mysterious existence the film’s whole point Bye Bye Tiberias is in UK and Irish cinemas from 28 June The Nusra Front is embedded in rebel-controlled areas It recently became more active in parts of Aleppo as rebels welcomed their help against the government the Lebanese militant group that is allied with Iran fights alongside Syrian government forces and other Iranian-backed militias Although its initial priority was to protect supply routes to Lebanon Hezbollah has increased its presence near the Aleppo and Latakia fronts Russian airstrikes have been key to the Syrian government’s rapid advances in both Aleppo and Latakia as it has bombarded insurgent areas primarily in the northwestern provinces Russia conducted hundreds of airstrikes around the country Syrian government forces severed a supply route from Turkey to rebel-held areas near Aleppo Rebels have lost territory in Latakia province to government forces Government forces severed a supply route to rebel-held areas near Aleppo Rebels have lost territory in Latakia province Government forces have made gains south and east of the city as they build strategic depth around their Al-Safira stronghold and push closer to Rasin al-Aboud an important air base that ISIS has surrounded for more than a year ISIS launched a counterattack in the north to draw government fighters away from the air base and gained some territory in the process ISIS has gained control of a long stretch of road north of Ithriya The road remains highly contested because it is the only overland route for supplying government fighters around Aleppo Rebel and government forces continue to fight for territory along the front lines between Idlib and Hama but the government has yet to make significant advances TOW antitank missiles were seen targeting cannons Russia has mostly attacked rebels fighting the government Targets include some American-backed rebel groups and groups which the United States considers terrorist organizations The United States has focused on ISIS and on supporting Kurdish forces But Americans have also hit some targets that could benefit the Syrian government Each location may have more than one strike while the Islamic State controlled territory mostly in the northwest The Islamic State rapidly gained territory in 2014 establishing governance in Raqqa and controlling the Euphrates River to Iraq Kurdish groups pushed the Islamic State out of some northern regions Rebel forces gained control of some areas in Idlib province detailed data on who controls which areas of the country was collected by the Carter Center contacts on the ground and videos shared on social media to determine how areas of control change daily director Lina Soualem is principally interested in memories As much as there is an anguished acknowledgment of the struggles women have forged across generations in Soualem’s family there is great reverence and admiration for their fortitude and resilience The film wades into the maelstrom of history particularly locating women’s narratives that aren’t allowed to register with as much force and credence as their accompanying men who were effectively displaced Frequently interposing archival footage and home videos Soualem offers a vast peek into her ancestral past sweeping over decades to how her great-grandmother and her husband had been driven out of Tiberias Being among the mass exodus of Arabs who had to evacuate the city her great-grandfather could never recover from the grief of uprooting leaving Um Ali to support herself as a seamstress She also had several daughters she raised on her own and Soualem recounts this with a natural pride who strived to educate herself in the face of severe odds getting into a school that only took in the best female Palestinian kids Nemat’s passion for learning ensured she became a school teacher Hiam clashed with her when she expressed her desire for a life that didn’t fit in with her mother’s her acting aspiration and choice of first husband points of contention that sparked her decision to move away from her village of Deir Hanna who somewhat made possible a reconciliation between Hiam and Nemat Soualem stages re-enactments of certain critical moments from Hiam’s life especially from the phase when she announced her desire with her family It was only when a local professor whom her father trusted acted as a mediator did he tone down his vociferousness against her decision her father had ears only for the professor The film derives most of its emotional power from Hiam’s memories of her mother and moments shared with her sisters Soaulem refrains from exploring her own baggage and association with the Palestinian village where she would spend her summers as a child There is a pronounced awareness of the need to remember to stave off an imminent erasure or forgetfulness while drawing our attention to how people are turned into refugees and a deliberate individual choice of exile from one’s homeland complex relationship we have to our homeplace one that can be utterly suffocating to be caught in its grip of a limiting vision as Hiam felt in her village and yet also to which we experience a tug of incomparable anchorage In its shimmering honesty of confronting the self-perceived failures of daughterhood Bye Bye Tiberias achieves a resounding impact conflicting ways women across generations have chosen to lead their lives with an unflappable spirit and a constant hunger for freedom and personal expression “Bye Bye Tiberias” will have its theatrical release on 28th June to selected nationwide cinemas. https://www.tapecollective.co.uk/feature-films/bye-bye-tiberias A devotee of gore and the unsavory but is now drifting to the milder Envious of anyone who gets the lowdown on recent films and likes late-night street strolls only to get stalked by random strangers Designed by Two Words