PARIS,
March 11 (IslamOnline.net) - Eight world renowned writers of different
nationalities took their testimonies on the situation in Palestinian
territories to the French cinemas on Wednesday, March 10.
Ecrivains
Des Frontieres (Border Writers) is a 80-minute documentary in which the
famous writers speak in detail - and each in his own language - on their
experience staying in Palestinian territories under the yoke of Israeli
occupation.
The
writers are as widely famous as Christian Salmon of France, Russell
Banks of the United States and Wole Syonka of Nigeria.
They
met with Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish and Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat as well as refugees living in tough conditions.
Banks
said that he learned a word of Arabic language largely echoed by
Palestinians crossing through Israeli military-manned checkpoints in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
‘Patience’
The
word is ‘patience’, he said in the documentary, directed by
Palestinian Sami Abdullah and Jose Reynes.
Salmon
feels the pinch in the West Bank city of Ramallah during the night,
where lights emitted from the Jewish settlements around Palestinian
areas falling in deep darkness.
Occupation
could determine lighted areas and darkened ones, he lamented in French,
with the famous Darwish reciting in Arabic and Palestinian singer
Kamilia Jobran and the call for prayer in mosques in Al-Quds (occupied
Jerusalem) on the background.
“Different
in everything, we have one goal; which is To Be,” Darwish said.
Portuguese
Jose de Sousa Saramago, Italian Vincenzo Consolo, South African Breyten
Breytenbach, Spanish Juan Goytisolo and Chinese Bei Dao also revived
their memory of life among people suffering from almost daily incursions
and seemingly endless checkpoints.
“We
invited the international writers of different nationalities to bear
witness to the reality of occupation and its significance: house
demolition, uprooting olive trees of Palestinian farmers, spreading
checkpoints in every village, city and corner,” Abdullah, the
director, said on the opening ceremony.
Bravery
 |
|
Wole
Syonka
|
The
writers wander in Ramallah camps to bear witness to the extent of
demolition resulting from Israeli incursions of the Palestinian
territories. They were clearly impressed by Palestinians’ patience.
When
Bei went to the Israeli consulate in San Francesco to apply for a visa
to Palestine, he received no response.
The
U.S.-based Chinese writer remembered the clerk saying: “there is
nothing called Palestine on the map”.
However,
when Bei visited Ramallah, he realized that the name of Palestine “is
deeply inscribed down the road of history”.
The
inspiration came after a Palestinian woman told him with a Palestinian
dialect and an enthusiastic tone that “Whatever (Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel) Sharon does, we will remain patient. Each generation is
stronger than its precedents”.
The
two directors resume their journey with the eight writers, crossing
checkpoints and shortcuts only used by settlers.
“This
clean and wide road is basically dedicated to Israeli settlers,” PLO
representative in Paris Laila Shahid, who accompanied the delegation
while aboard a bus crossing some roads, said.
Shahid
pointed out to a yellow line parallel to the road and said, “Look,
this line is also allotted for settlers. It prevents them from walking
into side-streets in order to not to be lost.
“They
are strangers and know nothing about our roads, curves and maps,” she
said.
