Palestinian director uses cinema to resist Israeli occupation

Palestinian director and screenwriter Nawras Abu Saleh continues to use her camera to wage cultural resistance against Israeli occupation.

Saleh spoke with Anadolu about his short film, “Al Qeeq,” which is about the life of Muhammad Al Qeeq. It has earned significant attention and positive feedback at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

Al Qeeq was detained by Israeli authorities without formal charges in 2015. He embarked on a 95-day hunger strike before his release in 2016. The film premiered May 21, coinciding with the end of Al Qeeq’s hunger strike.

“Many Hebrew newspapers reacted to the film. They made headlines like ‘How can a film depicting terrorists be shown? It’s not acceptable, but this is the power of cinema. If we don’t tell our own story, the world will only hear it from their perspective,” said Abu Saleh.

Abu Saleh recounted his days at Birzeit University in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where he, Mohammed Al Qeeq and a group of friends initiated a successful hunger strike against tuition fee hikes.

“Fifteen years later, I became a director, and Al Qeeq became a journalist. Al Qeeq was declared an ‘administrative detainee’ by the Israeli authorities and sent to prison without charge. My friend went on a hunger strike for about 100 days to protest Israel’s administrative detention decision and arbitrary practices.”

Administrative detention means Israel detains Palestinians in the occupied territories and imprisons them for six months without charge or right to defend themselves.

The detention period of an accused Palestinian referred to a military court can be extended several times for up to five years.

“This situation deeply affected me and took me back to our meeting days. As a director, I felt compelled to stand by him. I shot a short film called ‘Al-Qeeq,’ documenting his 100-day hunger strike.”

- Camera as a weapon against occupation

Abu Saleh emphasized the transformative power of cinema and suggested that it has the potential to dispel misconceptions about the Palestinian cause.

“Palestine is full of occupation stories. I witnessed the stories of my people. I was getting furious, especially watching how the Western media distorted the Palestine cause and reported the events differently,” he said.

“Therefore, I felt responsible. I recognized that the camera was an important weapon against the occupation. I wanted to end the world seeing us as ‘terrorists.’ We are human beings on the side of the truth. We are the real owners of those lands and that’s why we resist. Cinema has great power over people,” he said.

Saleh said Palestinians resort to hunger strikes to draw global attention to Israel’s unjust detentions.

“A hunger strike is a way to draw people’s attention to your cause, to say that there is a problem and this oppression must end,” he said.